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Brown University
History
Chair
Ethan Pollock
As one of the first institutions in the United States to provide for historical
studies, Brown University has long valued and nurtured research in the
Department of History. The faculty’s high standard of scholarship and
excellence in teaching are well known, and members of the department
are committed to the value a rigorous education in the humanities confers
upon students. The department trains students in the fundamentals of
historical thinking: skills and attitudes that will provide a foundation for
excellence in a wide range of careers and professions, including teaching,
law, medicine, business, public service, and advanced historical research.
For additional information, please visit the department's website: http://
brown.edu/Departments/History/
History Concentration Requirements
History is the study of how societies and cultures across the world change
over time. History concentrators learn to write and think critically, and to
understand issues from a variety of perspectives. The department offers
a wide variety of courses concerned with changes in human experience
through time, ranging from classical Greek and Roman civilizations to
the histories of Europe, the Americas, and Asia. While some courses
explore special topics, others concentrate on the history of a particular
country (e.g. Russia or France) or period of time (e.g. the Middle Ages or
the Renaissance). By taking advantage of our diverse course offerings,
students can engage in and develop broad perspectives on the past and
the present.
Concentration Requirements (for students
graduating after spring 2015)
1. Basic Requirement: A concentration in History consists of a minimum
of ten semester-long courses; of these, at least eight must be offered by
the Brown University History Department, including cross-listed courses.
(Students who spend more than one semester at another institution, must
take at least 7 HIST courses - see “Transferring Courses” below.)
2. Courses below 1000: Students may count no more than four courses
numbered below 1000 toward the concentration requirements. Students
considering a concentration in History are encouraged to take First Year
and Sophomore seminars, as well as courses in the HIST 0150 and 0200
series, for an introduction to historical reasoning, discussion, and writing.
3. Field of Focus: Upon declaring a concentration in History, students
must define the area that will be the primary focus of their program. The
primary field of focus must include a minimum of four courses. Students
who choose a geographical focus must provide a thematic or chronological
rationale for the coherence of courses with a broad chronological span.
Students who are interested in a thematic or transnational focus (such as
Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine or the Ancient World)
may include courses from different geographic areas. All students should
consult a concentration advisor early in the process. All fields are subject
to approval by the concentration advisor.
4. Geographical Distribution: Concentrators must take at least two
courses in three different geographic areas. These are:
• Africa
• East Asia
• Europe
• Global
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Middle East and South Asia
• North America
“Global” courses are defined as those that deal with at least three different
regions of the world.
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5. Chronological Distribution: All concentrators must complete at least
two courses designated as “P” (for pre-modern).
6. Capstone Seminar: All concentrators must complete at least one
capstone seminar (these will be HIST 1960s and HIST 1970s series
courses in the new numbering system.) These seminars are designed to
serve as an intellectual culmination of the concentration. They provide
students with an opportunity to delve deeply into a historical problem
and to write a major research and/or analytical paper which serves as a
capstone experience. Ideally, they will be taken in the field of focus and
during the student’s junior or senior year. Students considering writing
a senior honors thesis are advised to take an advanced seminar in their
junior year.
7. Honors (OPTIONAL): History concentrators in the 5th or 6th semester
may apply for honors. To be admitted, students must have achieved twothirds “quality grades” in History department courses. A “quality grade”
is defined as a grade of “A” or a grade of “S” accompanied by a course
performance report indicating a performance at the “A” standard.
Students who wish to enroll in honors are recommended to take HIST
1992, “History Honors Workshop for Prospective Students.” Students who
complete honors may count HIST 1992 as one of the 10 courses required
for graduation in history. HIST 1992 students who prepare a prospectus
that receives a grade of A- or above will be admitted to the honors
th
program. Students in their 7 semester who have not taken HIST 1992
(including but not limited to those who are away from Brown during that
semester) may apply to the program by submitting a prospectus no later
than the first day of that semester. All honors students must complete one
semester of HIST 1993 “History Honors Workshop for Thesis Writers, Part
I” and one semester of HIST 1994 “History Workshop for Thesis Writers,
Part II.” Students who contemplate enrolling in the honors program in
History should consult the honors section of the department website. They
are also encouraged to meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies,
who serves as the honors advisor.
8. Transferring Courses: The History Department encourages students
to take history courses at other institutions, either in the United States
or abroad, as well as history-oriented courses in other departments and
programs at Brown. Students may apply two courses taken in other
departments/programs at Brown to the ten-course minimum for the History
concentration. Students who spend one semester at another institution
may apply to their concentration a maximum of two courses from other
departments or institutions, and those who spend more than one semester
at another institution may apply to their concentration a third course
transferred from another institution.
Students wishing to apply such courses must present to their
concentration advisor justification that those courses complement some
aspect of their concentration. Courses from other Brown departments may
not be applied toward the chronological distribution requirement; courses
transferred from other institutions may be applied toward the chronological
distribution requirement so long as they clearly are history courses.
It is normally expected that students will have declared their intention to
concentrate in History and have their concentration programs approved
before undertaking study elsewhere. Students taking courses in Brownrun programs abroad automatically receive University transfer credit, but
concentration credit is granted only with the approval of a concentration
advisor. Students taking courses in other foreign-study programs or at
other universities in the United States must apply to the Transfer Credit
Advisor.
Final transfer and concentration credit will not be granted until the student
successfully completes the course(s) and returns to Brown. Approval by
the department advisor for transfer credit will be contingent on satisfactory
course content and performance (to be demonstrated by documents such
as a transcript showing the grade, syllabi, notes, papers, exams, etc.).
9. Regular Consultation: Students are strongly urged to consult regularly
with their concentration advisor or a department advisor about their
program. During the seventh semester, all students must meet with their
concentration advisor for review and approval of their program.
Brown University
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History
History Graduate Program
The department of History offers graduate programs leading to the Master
of Arts (A.M.) degree and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree.
For more information on admission and program requirements, please visit
the following website:
http://www.brown.edu/academics/gradschool/programs/history
Courses
HIST 0150A. History of Capitalism.
Capitalism didn't just spring from the brain of Adam Smith. Its logic is not
encoded on human DNA, and its practices are not the inevitable outcome
of supply and demand. So how did capitalism become the dominant
economic system of the modern world? History can provide an answer by
exploring the interaction of culture and politics, technology and enterprise,
and opportunity and exploitation from the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade
to the 2008 Financial Crisis. HIST 0150 courses introduce students to
methods of historical analysis, interpretation, and argument. This class
presumes no economics background, nor previous history courses.
Fall HIST0150A S01 15061
MWF
11:00-11:50(04)
(S. Rockman)
HIST 0150B. The Philosophers' Stone: Alchemy From Antiquity to
Harry Potter.
Alchemy today conjures Harry Potter or Full Metal Alchemist, not the
serious scholarly tradition that captivated Isaac Newton and Carl Jung.
We will explore alchemy’s long history, examining how it has endured and
adapted to different cultural, social, intellectual, economic, and religious
contexts. What did alchemists do? How did they explain their art? And
why has alchemy come to represent fraud and folly in some circles and
wisdom in others? Students will answer these questions by conducting
research in the Hay. HIST 0150 courses introduce students to methods of
historical analysis, interpretation, and argument. Presumes no previous
history courses. E
Spr HIST0150B S01 24199
MWF
11:00-11:50(04)
(T. Nummedal)
HIST 0150C. Locked Up: A Global History of Prison and Captivity.
A long history lies behind the millions of men and women locked up
today as prisoners, captives and hostages. Beginning in antiquity and
ending in the present, this course draws on materials from a variety of
cultures across the world to explore incarceration's centuries-old past.
In examining the experience and meaning of imprisonment, whether as
judicial punishment, political repression, or the fallout of war, the class
will ask fundamental questions about liberty as well. History 150 courses
introduce students to methods of historical analysis, interpretation and
argumentation. This course presumes no previous history courses.
Fall HIST0150C S01 15405
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(A. Remensnyder)
HIST 0150D. Refugees: A Twentieth-Century History.
Refugees are arguably the most important social, political and legal
category of the twentieth century. This introductory lecture course locates
the emergence of the figure of the refugee in histories of border-making,
nation-state formation and political conflicts across the twentieth century to
understand how displacement and humanitarianism came to be organized
as international responses to forms of exclusion, war, disaster and
inequality.
Spr HIST0150D S01 25091
MWF
12:00-12:50(05)
(V. Zamindar)
HIST 0212. Histories of East Asia: China.
China's ascendancy as a global economic power in recent decades has
been regarded by many as a reclaiming of its former glory. In introducing
the history of China from earliest times to the present, this course aims
to provide an understanding of the making and remaking over millennia
of what we call Chinese civilization, with its changes, contingencies,
and continuities, its various claims to greatness, and its many recurring
challenges. This course is open to all students and assumes no prior
knowledge of Chinese culture, history, or language. Readings consist of
both a textbook and relevant primary sources.
Fall HIST0212
S01 14940
MW
8:30-9:50(16)
(C. Brokaw)
HIST 0215. Modern Korea: Contending with Modernity.
This course examines the extraordinarily rapid revolution of Korea from
isolated, agrarian society into a culturally modern, industrialized, and
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History
democratic nation that is an important actor on the world stage. It also will
investigate how a non-Western society generates its own inspiration for
human relations, social structure, political and cultural values. Includes
coverage of North Korea.
HIST 0218. The Making of Modern East Asia.
This course examines Asia in the shaping of the modern world, from
competing definitions of empires circa 1800 to the rise of the notion of the
twenty-first as a "Pacific Century." It investigates the definition(s) of Asia
as a world region, explores transnational interactions and emphasizes
Asians as historical actors via written, visual and aural sources. Events
are placed in the context of key historical paradigms, including varying
definitions of modernity, the rise of the nation-state, birth of mass politics,
new mechanisms of war, the language of self-determination, changing
views of gender, shifting types of media and consumption, etc. WRIT
Fall HIST0218
S01 14893
MWF
1:00-1:50(06)
(R. Nedostup)
HIST 0228A. War and Peace in Modern Europe.
This course explores the relationship between war, culture, and society
in modern Europe. The two world wars changed the political, social, and
cultural landscape of Europe, and by extension, of the rest of the world,
not least the United States. We will not delve into the military history of
these vast conflicts; instead, we will examine how the experience of total
war remolded European understanding and practices of memory and
commemoration, culture and representation, humanity and civilization,
utopia and revolution, catastrophe and identity. We will read influential
scholarly texts and literary works, and watch important contemporary films.
HIST 0233. Colonial Latin America.
Colonial Latin America, from Columbus's voyage in 1492 to Independence
in the nineteenth century, was the creation of three peoples: Europeans,
Native Americans, and Africans. Spanish and Portuguese conquerors
brought with them the world of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the
Renaissance. Native Americans lived there already, in rich empires and
hunter-gatherer bands. Africans came as slaves from Senegal, Nigeria,
Congo and Angola, bringing old traditions and creating new ones. These
diverse peoples blended together to form a new people. This was a place
of violence, slavery and oppression -- but also of art, faith, new societies,
new ideas. P WRIT
Fall HIST0233
S01 15407
TTh
2:30-3:50(11)
(J. Mumford)
HIST 0234. Modern Latin America.
This course is an introduction to the history of modern Latin America.
Through lectures, discussions, shared readings, we will explore major
themes in the past two hundred years of Latin American history, from
the early nineteenth-century independence movements to the recent
“Left Turn” in Latin American politics. Some of the topics we will examine
include the racial politics of state-formation; the fraught history of U.S.Latin American relations; the cultural politics of nationalism; how modernity
was defined in relation to gender and sexuality; and the emergence of
authoritarian regimes and revolutionary mobilizations, and the role of
religion in shaping these processes.
Spr HIST0234
S01 24156
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(D. Rodriguez)
HIST 0240. Middle East Beginnings: Pre-Islamic Arabia to Ottoman
Europe.
Cradle of monotheisms to crucible of empires from ancient to modern
times, the “Middle East” is the only world region spanning three continents.
Embracing the historian’s long-view, this course explores the premodern
makings of an amorphous region which refuses to be defined by
geographical territories or borders. We begin in sixth-century Arabia, a
pre-Islamic peninsula on the frontiers of Byzantium and Sassanid Persia;
we proceed to the rise of a new faith and ensuing fusion of civilizations,
imperial traditions, and mercantile networks from Spain in the west to
China in the east, culminating in the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. P
Fall HIST0240
S01 14915
MWF
12:00-12:50(12)
(F. Ahmed)
HIST 0243. Modern Middle East Roots: 1492 to the Present.
The goal of this course is to provide students with a broad overview of
Modern Middle Eastern history. Following the expulsion of the Moors
and Jews of Iberia, we journey to the opposite end of the Mediterranean
with continued Turkic expansions into southeastern Europe, the Arab
world, and Iran. Then, the “long” nineteenth century: an era of profound
transformation culminating in the Ottoman Empire’s partition, primarily by
Brown University
British and French colonial rule. Finally, we explore forces shaping the
twentieth century Middle East, from nationalism to oil, Islamism to “street”
politics, and military interventions by the US, USSR, and regional powers.
Spr HIST0243
S01 24100
TTh
10:30-11:50(09)
(F. Ahmed)
HIST 0252. The American Civil War.
In this course we will investigate the "felt histories" of the American
Civil War—the personal experiences of Americans (northerners and
southerners, slaves and freed people, European immigrants and
Native Americans, men and women) who fought its battles and bore its
consequences. These histories, as Robert Penn Warren notes, are an
"index to the very complexity, depth, and fundamental significance" of
the conflict. In addition to military and political dimensions we will also
examine constructions of Civil War memory (photography, film, and other
media) and the dominant narratives that have shaped our understanding
of the war since 1865. WRIT
Fall HIST0252
S01 15408
MWF
12:00-12:50(12)
(M. Vorenberg)
HIST 0257. Modern American History: New and Different
Perspectives.
Rather than a survey, this course uses specific episodes and events to
reveal different modes of analysis. Examples of questions are: What do
gender perspectives tell us about men on the frontier and women in dance
halls? What is the importance of baseball to American culture? How do
a historian and a lawyer differ in their analysis of a sensational crime
case? How can we understand why the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs
on Japan? How did scandals in television and popular music signal an
end to American innocence? How has the Baby Boom generation altered
American society? And more. WRIT
Spr HIST0257
S01 24636
TTh
9:00-10:20(08)
(H. Chudacoff)
HIST 0285A. Modern Genocide and Other Crimes against Humanity.
This course explores the emergence, evolution, varieties, underlying
causes, and means of confronting and coming to terms with genocide
and other crimes against humanity in the 20th century. We will discuss
the origins of genocide and the subsequent conceptualization of this
phenomenon; manifestations of colonial, imperial, racial, and communist
genocide; war crimes and mass crimes by totalitarian regimes; and
policies of mass expulsions and "ethnic cleansing." We will conclude with
attempts to curb and punish genocide by means of international justice.
HIST 0286A. History of Medicine I: Medical Traditions in the Old
World Before 1700.
People have always attempted to promote health and prolong life, and to
ameliorate bodily suffering. Those living in parts of Eurasia also developed
textual traditions that, together with material remains, allow historians
to explore their medical practices and explanations, including changes
in their traditions, sometimes caused by interactions with other peoples
of Europe, Asia, and Africa. We'll introduce students to major medical
traditions of the Old World to 1700, with emphasis on Europe, and explore
some reasons for change. A knowledge of languages and the social and
natural sciences is welcome not required. Not open to first year students.
P
Fall HIST0286A S01 14896
MWF
9:00-9:50(16)
(H. Cook)
HIST 0286B. History of Medicine II: The Development of Scientific
Medicine in Europe and the World.
From the 18th century onward, Western medicine has claimed universal
validity due to its scientific foundations, relegating other kinds of medicine
to the status of "alternative" practices. The course therefore examines the
development of scientific medicine in Europe and elsewhere up to the late
20th century, and its relationships with other medical ideas, practices, and
traditions. Students with a knowledge of languages and the social and
natural sciences are welcome but no prerequisites are required. Not open
to first year students.
Spr HIST0286B S01 24106
MWF
9:00-9:50(02)
(H. Cook)
HIST 0410. Histories of East Asia: China.
China's ascendancy as a global economic power in recent decades has
been regarded by many as a reclaiming of its former glory. In introducing
the history of China from earliest times to the present, this course aims
to provide an understanding of the making and remaking over millennia
of what we call Chinese civilization, with its changes, contingencies,
and continuities, its various claims to greatness, and its many recurring
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challenges. This course is open to all students and assumes no prior
knowledge of Chinese culture, history, or language. Readings consist of
both a textbook and relevant primary sources. E
HIST 0505. Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
This class deals with the History of transatlantic slave trade by
emphasizing how Africa affected and was affected by the largest forced
migration in the History of humankind. The class will engage key debates
in the historiography of the slave trade, such as whether the trade
underdeveloped Africa, the connection between the trade and the rise of
coastal kingdoms in West Africa, and African resistance/cooperation with
the slave trade. FYS
Fall HIST0505
S01 16673
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(R. Ferreira)
HIST 0520. Modern American History: New and Different
Perspectives.
Rather than a survey, this course uses specific episodes and events to
reveal different modes of analysis. Examples of questions are: What do
gender perspectives tell us about men on the frontier and women in dance
halls? What is the importance of baseball to American culture? How do
a historian and a lawyer differ in their analysis of a sensational crime
case? How can we understand why the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs
on Japan? How did scandals in television and popular music signal an
end to American innocence? How has the Baby Boom generation altered
American society? And more. M
HIST 0520A. Athens, Jerusalem, and Baghdad: Three Civilizations,
One Tradition.
We examine core beliefs of early Greek, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic
civilizations that form the basis of Western thought. Serving similar
ideological purpose in the pre-modern world as have political and
economic theories for the modern world, religion and philosophy defined
individual lives and collective identities. We focus on the manner of
appropriation and modification of thought from one culture to another in
order to appreciate that there is far more similarity than difference in belief
systems among what are today viewed as separate, even contesting,
cultures. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. Instructor permission
required. FYS WRIT P
HIST 0521A. Christianity in Conflict in the Medieval Mediterranean.
Students in this class will learn about medieval history by taking on roles,
informed by classic texts, in elaborate games set in the past. Drawing on
the innovative “Reacting to the Past” curriculum, this class explores two
dramatic moments in medieval history: the debate about Christian belief
held at Nicaea in 325 and the deliberations about crusading held at Acre in
1148. Students will adhere to the intellectual beliefs of the medieval figures
they have been assigned to play, and will learn skills—speaking, writing,
critical thinking, leadership, and teamwork—in order to prevail in difficult
and complicated situations. FYS P
Fall HIST0521A S01 14917
TTh
2:30-3:50(11)
(J. Conant)
HIST 0522G. An Empire and Republic: The Dutch Golden Age.
Between about 1580 and 1690, a new nation emerged in Europe that
became a bastion of liberty, ideas in ferment, fine art, military power,
science and technology, and global economic reach: the Dutch Republic.
A nation that thought of itself as peaceful, yet was constantly at war; as
Protestant, yet was composed of people of many faiths; as personally
aspirational, yet derived much wealth from the conquest and slavery of
others. Its people and institutional arrangements greatly influenced Britain
and America on their paths to power, too. Its rise and eclipse may be
instructive.. Enrollment limited to 20 first-year students. FYS WRIT P
Spr HIST0522G S01 24637
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(H. Cook)
HIST 0522N. Reason, Revolution and Reaction in Europe.
This course will explore cultural, economic, and political forces taking
place in the globalizing Europe of the 18th and 19th centuries. WRIT FYS
Fall HIST0522N S01 15409
TTh
6:40-8:00PM(05)
(J. Richards)
HIST 0522O. The Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment: Introduction to the Enlightenment as a fragmented
series of projects that aimed at human liberation and the understanding of
the social and natural worlds, with massive implications for the way that
we conceive of ourselves today. Readings explore philosophy, science,
slavery, economics, gender relations, and politics in the 18th century. FYS
Brown University
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History
Fall HIST0522O S01 16658
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(J. Revill)
Fall HIST0556A S01 15413
TTh
9:00-10:20(08)
(H. Chudacoff)
HIST 0523A. The Holocaust in Historical Perspective.
The course will examine the history and historiography of the
Holocaust from early accounts to recent reconstructions of the origins,
implementation, and aftermath of the "Final Solution." We will also analyze
documents, testimonies, memoirs, trial records, and various forms of
representations and commemorations of the Shoah. Enrollment limited to
20 first year students. FYS WRIT
HIST 0559A. Culture and U.S. Empire.
This seminar examines the relationship of American culture to U.S.
imperial project. We will look at how cultural ideologies such as those
about race, gender, and American exceptionalism have not only shaped
Americans' interactions with other peoples but also justified the spread of
U.S. power. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT
HIST 0523O. The Academic as Activist.
Since the late nineteenth century, the modern research university has
struggled with questions about When is the researcher participating
in engaged scholarship? When does engagement suggest, instead, a
lack of objectivity? How have economists, anthropologists, biologists,
and historians tried to contribute to the common good, and where have
their efforts broken barriers of privilege, and when have their efforts
contributed to further oppression? This seminar will look at debates over
the role of academics in political life. Topics may include: Fabian socialism,
libertarianism and development economics, pan-African movements, and
the Green Revolution. WRIT FYS
HIST 0574A. The Silk Road, Past and Present.
The Silk Road has historically been the crossroad of Eurasia; since the
third-century BCE it has linked the societies of Asia—East, Central, and
South—and Europe and the Middle East. The exchange of goods, ideas,
and peoples that the Silk Road facilitated has significantly shaped the
polities, economies, belief systems, and cultures of many modern nations:
China, Russia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and India. This course explores
the long history (and the mythologies or imaginations) of the Silk Road
in order to understand how the long and complex pasts of the regions it
touches are important in the age of globalization. FYS WRIT
Fall HIST0523O S01 15410
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(J. Guldi)
HIST 0535A. Atlantic Pirates.
This seminar explores piracy in the Atlantic from the sixteenth to the early
nineteenth centuries. We will examine everyday life on pirate vessels; the
pirates' role in emerging colonial societies and economies; the complex
links between piracy, imperialism, and nation-building; and the image of
pirates as both villains and figures of legend. Enrollment limited to 20 first
year students. FYS P
Fall HIST0535A S01 14900
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(R. Cope)
HIST 0537A. Popular Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean.
From tango to plastic surgery, Donald Duck to reggaeton, this course
places popular culture at the center of modern Latin American and
Caribbean history. How, we will ask, did popular culture reflect and shape
struggles over national belonging? How did foreign cultural products come
to bear on international relations and transnational flows? In what contexts
has culture served as a vehicle of resistance to dominant ideologies and
systems of power? Far from a mere "diversion," popular culture instead
offers a compelling lens onto the relationship between state and society in
Latin America and beyond. WRIT FYS
Fall HIST0537A S01 15411
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(J. Lambe)
HIST 0540F. Women in the Middle East, 7th-20th C.: Patriarchal
Visions, Revolutionary Voices.
This course provides an historical approach to women’s lives, status, and
perceptions. It focuses on women in the Middle East, from the seventh
century emergence of Islam to the twentieth century revolutions and
struggle for new identities. It examines the contested roles of women in
society and the ways women were culturally crafted. In particular, we will
discuss the modes by which women’s lives were narrated (by themselves
and others); women’s use of the “patriarchal bargain” to deal with the
shift from so-called “traditional” to so-called “modern” culture; and the
encounter between “Eastern” and “Western” societies. FYS WRIT
Fall HIST0540F S01 14902
T
4:00-6:30(18)
(P. Brummett)
HIST 0551A. Abraham Lincoln: Historical and Cultural Perspectives.
This seminar uses the life, legacy, and myth of Abraham Lincoln to
explore central themes such as the frontier in the early republic, the
nature of political leadership, law and legal culture, and the emergence
of sectionalism, slavery, antislavery, and Civil War. Sources are drawn
from Lincoln’s works, the writings of his contemporaries, and modern
non-fiction, fiction, and film. The course enables us to consider two larger
themes: 1) the relationship between memory and history; and 2) the
function of history in modern society. The course has no prerequisites and
does not presuppose special knowledge of American history. WRIT FYS
Fall HIST0551A S01 15412
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(M. Vorenberg)
HIST 0556A. Sport in American History.
This course covers the relationship of sports to aspects of American
culture since 1900. Topics include gender, race, amateurism,
professionalism, intercollegiate athletics, and sports heroes. Enrollment
limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT
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History
Fall HIST0559A S01 14933
Spr HIST0574A S01 23992
Th
M
4:00-6:30(02)
3:00-5:30(13)
(N. Shibusawa)
(C. Brokaw)
HIST 0580M. The Age of Revolutions, 1760-1824.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Americas belonged to a
handful of European monarchies; within a few decades, most of the
Americas was composed of independent republics, some of the European
monarchs were either deposed or quaking on their thrones. Usually
considered separately, revolutions in British North America, France, SaintDomingue (Haiti) and Spanish America had diverse local circumstances
yet composed a single cycle of intellectual ferment, imperial reform,
accelerating violence and, forging of new political communities. We will
examine revolutions that helped create the world we live in. Enrollment
limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT
Fall HIST0580M S01 14934
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(J. Mumford)
HIST 0582A. Animal Histories.
Animals have been people’s energy, food, wealth, gods, hobbies, icons,
and companions. Wild and domesticated non-human animals are essential
yet often invisible historical subjects. This seminar makes them visible
by tracking them through time—ancient, modern, and contemporary—
on every continent. They are often symbols, but we look beyond animals
as represented by people. We are more interested in them as actors and
subjects with agency. By pushing at the boundaries of what constitutes
legitimate topics, this seminar serves as a critical introduction to the
historical discipline. FYS WRIT
Fall HIST0582A S01 15414
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(N. Jacobs)
HIST 0623A. British Social History.
What is the role of history in imagining progress, identity, and political
movements? This course begins by reading classic nineteenthcentury historians From Trevelyan to E. P. Thompson, asking about the
politics implicit in their choice of subject and archive. It then turns to
contemporary history, asking, how have debates about race, gender, and
the environment in the past thirty years shaped how we look at history?
How have different tools like digital history or the analysis of culture
changed what we look at or why? How is the study of history changing
today? SOPH WRIT
Spr HIST0623A S01 24632
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(J. Guldi)
HIST 0654A. Welfare States and a History of Modern Life.
History of the American welfare state, from its origins in nineteenthcentury industrial capitalism to contemporary debates about health care, in
comparative perspective. Why did welfare states appear and what form did
the U.S. version take? Considerations of social inequality, labor relations,
race, gender, family policy, the social wage, and the relationship between
markets and the state are all considered. Some comparison with European
models. SOPH
Fall HIST0654A S01 15415
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(R. Self)
HIST 0658D. Walden + Woodstock: The American Lives of Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Bob Dylan.
Emerson and Dylan are cultural icons of 19th and 120th Century America.
Both are elusive and yet representative writers who pushed against
the limits of tradition genres, and, by doing so, created new ones: both
gave support to turning points in the civil rights struggle and against
Brown University
American military aggression; both were at the epicenter of a wide circle
of intellectuals, while denying their own centrality; both had boundless
energy for innovative public performance. "Walden and Woodstock" is an
investigation of the role of the intellectual within celebrity culture and of the
use of comparative biography. SOPH
Fall HIST0658D S01 15416
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(K. Sacks)
HIST 0685A. The Social Lives of Dead Bodies in China and Beyond.
Corpses, much like the living, are not neutral bodies, but are managed
into structures of social meaning. This course aims to uncover corpses
as signifiers and actors during times of community upheaval. We will
take modern China as our focal point, but also look elsewhere in the
Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia since the 19th century, when the
broadening scale and nature of warfare; state expansion; rapid urban and
rural development; global circulations of technology; and the interplay
of international philanthropies with older forms of charity and ritual
pacification significantly affected the treatment, conceptions, and actions
of the dead. WRIT SOPH
Fall HIST0685A S01 15417
W
5:30-8:00PM(17)
(R. Nedostup)
HIST 0930A. Word, Image and Power in Renaissance Italy (ITAL 0580).
Interested students must register for ITAL 0580.
HIST 0930E. Sacrifice and Suffering: Rhetorics of Martyrdom
Compared (RELS 0640).
Interested students must register for RELS 0640.
HIST 0930F. Twentieth-Century Africa (AFRI 0160).
Interested students must register for AFRI 0160.
HIST 0930G. Difficult Relations? Judaism and Christianity from the
Middle Ages until the Present (JUDS 0050M).
Interested students must register for JUDS 0050M.
Fall HIST0930G S01 16359
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 0930J. The World of Byzantium (CLAS 0660).
Interested students must register for CLAS 0660.
HIST 0930L. Israel's Wars (JUDS 0050H).
Interested students must register for JUDS 0050H.
HIST 0930M. Brothers Betrayed: Jews and Poles from 1500 until
Today (JUDS 0901).
Interested students must register for JUDS 0901.
HIST 0930N. War and Society in the Ancient World (CLAS 0560).
Interested students must register for CLAS 0560.
HIST 0940A. History of Intercollegiate Athletics (EDUC 0850).
Interested students must register for EDUC 0850.
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 0940B. The Campus on Fire: American Colleges and
Universities in the 1960's (EDUC 0400).
Interested students must register for EDUC 0400.
Fall HIST0940B S01 16350
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 0940C. When Leaders Lie: Machiavelli in International Context
(ITAL 0981).
Interested students must register for ITAL 0981.
Fall HIST0940C S01 16356
Arranged
HIST 0940H. The Jew in the Modern World (JUDS 0050L).
Interested students must register for JUDS 0050L.
HIST 0940I. Social Welfare in the Ancient Greek City (CLAS 0310).
Interested students must register for CLAS 0310.
HIST 0960G. When Leaders Lie: Machiavelli in International Context
(ITAL 0981).
Interested students must register for ITAL 0981.
HIST 0970O. Abraham Lincoln: Historical and Cultural Perspectives.
This seminar uses the life, legacy, and myth of Abraham Lincoln to
explore central themes such as the frontier in the early republic, the
nature of political leadership, law and legal culture, and the emergence
of sectionalism, slavery, antislavery, and Civil War. Sources are drawn
from Lincoln’s works, the writings of his contemporaries, and modern
non-fiction, fiction, and film. The course enables us to consider two larger
themes: 1) the relationship between memory and history; and 2) the
function of history in modern society. The course has no prerequisites and
does not presuppose special knowledge of American history. M FYS
HIST 0970P. Culture and U.S. Empire.
This seminar examines the relationship of American culture to U.S.
imperial project. We will look at how cultural ideologies such as those
about race, gender, and American exceptionalism have not only shaped
Americans' interactions with other peoples but also justified the spread of
U.S. power. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT M
HIST 0970R. The Holocaust in Historical Perspective.
The course will examine the history and historiography of the
Holocaust from early accounts to recent reconstructions of the origins,
implementation, and aftermath of the "Final Solution." We will also analyze
documents, testimonies, memoirs, trial records, and various forms of
representations and commemorations of the Shoah. Enrollment limited to
20 first year students. FYS WRIT M
HIST 0970S. Sport in American History.
This course covers the relationship of sports to aspects of American
culture since 1900. Topics include gender, race, amateurism,
professionalism, intercollegiate athletics, and sports heroes. Enrollment
limited to 20 first year students. FYS WRIT M
HIST 0930K. Islam and Modernity (RELS 0600).
Interested students must register for RELS 0600.
Spr HIST0940A S01 25296
5
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 0940D. The Border/La Frontera (ETHN 0090A).
Interested students must register for ETHN 0090A.
HIST 0940E. Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement (AFRI
0110C).
Interested students must register for AFRI 0110C. WRIT
HIST 0940F. Brown v. Board of Education (EDUC 0610).
Interested students must register for EDUC 0610.
HIST 0940G. From Amsterdam to Istanbul: Christians, Moslems, and
Jews (JUDS 0050E).
Interested students must register for JUDS 0050E.
HIST 0970Z. Atlantic Pirates.
This seminar explores piracy in the Atlantic from the sixteenth to the early
nineteenth centuries. We will examine everyday life on pirate vessels; the
pirates' role in emerging colonial societies and economies; the complex
links between piracy, imperialism, and nation-building; and the image of
pirates as both villains and figures of legend. Enrollment limited to 20 first
year students. FYS P
HIST 0971D. An Empire and Republic: The Dutch Golden Age.
Between about 1580 and 1690, a new nation emerged in Europe that
became a bastion of liberty, ideas in ferment, fine art, military power,
science and technology, and global economic reach: the Dutch Republic.
A nation that thought of itself as peaceful, yet was constantly at war; as
Protestant, yet was composed of people of many faiths; as personally
aspirational, yet derived much wealth from the conquest and slavery of
others. Its people and institutional arrangements greatly influenced Britain
and America on their paths to power, too. Its rise and eclipse may be
instructive.. Enrollment limited to 20 first-year students. FYS P
HIST 0971G. The Age of Revolutions, 1760-1824.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Americas belonged to a
handful of European monarchies; within a few decades, most of the
Americas was composed of independent republics, some of the European
monarchs were either deposed or quaking on their thrones. Usually
considered separately, revolutions in British North America, France, SaintDomingue (Haiti) and Spanish America had diverse local circumstances
yet composed a single cycle of intellectual ferment, imperial reform,
accelerating violence and, forging of new political communities. We will
examine revolutions that helped create the world we live in. Enrollment
limited to 20 first year students. E FYS WRIT
HIST 0971J. Athens, Jerusalem, and Baghdad: Three Civilizations,
One Tradition.
This FYS examines the core beliefs of early Greek, Jewish, Christian,
and Islamic civilizations that form the basis of Western thought. Serving
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History
a similar ideological purpose in the pre-modern world as have political
and economic theories for the modern world, religion and philosophy
defined individual lives and collective identities. We focus on the manner
of appropriation and modification of thought from one culture to another in
order to appreciate that there is far more similarity than difference in belief
systems among what are today viewed as separate, even contesting,
cultures. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. Instructor permission
required. FYS WRIT P
HIST 1000A. History of Greece: From Alexander the Great to the
Roman Conquest.
Covers the decline of Athens as the center of classical civilization; the
conquests of Alexander the Great; the culture of the Greek elite and, to the
extent that it's recoverable, of the indigenous populations of the Hellenistic
world; and Greek contributions to what we call Western Civilization. P
HIST 1020. Living Together: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in
Medieval Iberia.
A pressing issue in today's pluralistic societies is how people of different
identities (religious, ethnic, etc.) can live together. This course explores
a slice of history that can help us think through questions of difference in
our own world: medieval Spain, where for centuries Muslims, Christians,
and Jews lived in close proximity. Often through explicit juxtaposition with
modern debates, this course examines how these people understood
and structured their relations with each other in the Iberian Peninsula
between 711 and 1492. Themes include: identity and cultural definition;
power and religious violence; tolerance and intolerance; acculturation and
assimilation; gender and sexuality. WRIT P
HIST 1030. Southern African History.
This course examines major themes of history of southern Africa from
the earliest times until 1994, with heavy emphasis on historiographical
debates. Our discussions of the South African past will always be informed
by a consideration of the approach of the scholars who have interpreted
and presented it as history. Our major questions concern the origins of
historical change and the creation of racial groups. We will probe the
significance of race in South African history but also the limitations of
its explanatory power. Course will meet twice a week for lecture and
discussion groups will meet once a week.
Fall HIST1030
S01 14944
MWF
1:00-1:50(06)
(N. Jacobs)
HIST 1070. "Modern" Africa.
This course begins with the end of imperialism and ends with a look
toward the future. Themes include the pivotal importance of the newly
sovereign states, the ongoing engagement with the rest of the world, and
shared opinion about the imperative of modern development, even as
definitions of modern and development differed. Readings include many
primary sources, supplemented by articles on history and social science.
Evaluation is based on participation, a map quiz, mid-term and final
examinations, and short writing examinations, including article reviews.
Students will also discover, analyze, and edit two new primary sources.
WRIT
Spr HIST1070
S01 24638
MWF
1:00-1:50(06)
(N. Jacobs)
HIST 1080. Slavery in the Ancient World.
Examines the institution of slavery in the ancient world, from Mesopotamia
and the Near East to the great slave societies of classical Greece and
(especially) imperial Rome; comparison of ancient and modern slave
systems; modern views of ancient slavery from Adam Smith to Hume to
Marx to M.I. Finley. Readings in English. E
HIST 1090. Black Freedom Struggle Since 1945.
Examines the extended history of the Civil Rights Movement in the
U.S. with a range of primary sources. Starting at World War II, the
course considers the roles of the courts, the government, organizations,
local communities, and individuals in the ongoing struggle for African
American equality, focusing on African American agency. Sources include
photographs, documentaries, movies, letters, speeches, autobiography,
and secondary readings. Must have taken at least one post-1865 U.S.
history course demonstrating a foundation in this time period. Enrollment
limited to 50. M
HIST 1118. China's Late Empires.
A post-nationalist perspective on history in China from 1200-1930, with
emphasis on empire--formation, gender, and daily life in the Mongol
6
History
Yuan, Chinese Ming, and Manchu Qing empires, as well as nationalist
reconstructions of the Chinese past in the early twentieth century. P
Spr HIST1118
S01 24211
MW
8:30-9:50(02)
(C. Brokaw)
HIST 1120. At China's Edges.
What does it mean to live on the borders of a rising world power?
This course introduces the modern histories of such places as Hong
Kong; Macau; Taiwan; Manchuria; Sichuan; Yunnan; and Xinjiang by
investigating their commonalities and differences. Themes include:
ecology and identity; comparative colonialisms and experiences of
decolonization; war and border regions; nation building, citizenship,
and the "art of not being governed." Students will have an opportunity
to research additional sites (e.g. Mongolia, Tibet) using frameworks
introduced in class discussions.
Spr HIST1120
S01 24163
MWF
1:00-1:50(06)
(R. Nedostup)
HIST 1140. Samurai and Merchants, Prostitutes and Priests:
Japanese Urban Culture in the Early Modern Period.
Examines the cultural traditions of the urban samurai, the wealthy
merchant, and the plebian artisan that emerged in the great metropolises
of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto during the early modern period. Focuses on the
efforts of the government to mold certain kinds of cultural development for
its own purposes and the efforts of various social groups to redirect those
efforts to suit their desires and self-interest. WRIT P
Fall HIST1140
S01 16561
TTh
9:00-10:20(08)
(J. McClain)
HIST 1150. Modern Japan.
Japan is a rich site for an exploration of many of the key processes and
concepts that have shaped, and continue to transform, the modern world.
These include the creation of the nation as the fundamental structure
for social and political organization, a development that came late to
Japan and had profound effects on its relationships with its neighbors,
the crafting of its own histories, and with the emergence of debates about
what it meant to be “Japanese.” The course also explores how ideas about
gender, race, and tradition have been understood and made use of in
modern Japan. WRIT
Spr HIST1150
S01 24641
MWF
11:00-11:50(04)
(K. Smith)
HIST 1155. Japan's Pacific War: 1937-1945.
Uses film, oral histories, historical fiction, and more traditional forms
of historical interpretation to explore the events, ideas, and legacies
of Japan's Pacific War. The armed conflict began in 1937 with the
Japanese invasion of China and ended in 1945 with the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some attention is paid to military
developments, but the principle concerns fall into the areas of mutual
images, mobilization, and memory. WRIT
Fall HIST1155
S01 15418
MWF
11:00-11:50(04)
(K. Smith)
HIST 1200. Science at the Crossroads.
This course will look closely at the dramatic developments that
fundamentally challenged Western Science between 1859 and the
advent of the Second World War in the 1930s. Its primary focus will be
on a variety of texts written in an effort to understand and interpret the
meanings of fundamentally new ideas including from the biological side-evolutionary theory, genetic theory, and eugenics; from the physical side
relativity theory, and quantum mechanics. The class should be equally
accessible to students whose primary interests lie in the sciences and
those who are working in the humanities. M
HIST 1200B. The Fall of Empire and Rise of Kings: Greek History to
479 to 323 BCE.
The Greek world was transformed in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The
rise and fall of Empires (Athens and Persia) and the metamorphosis of
Macedon into a supreme power under Philip II and Alexander the Great
provide the headlines. The course covers an iconic period of history,
explores life-changing events that affected the people of the eastern
Mediterranean, and through these transformations, offers deep insight
into the common pressures that ordinary people and their communities
confronted. The course addresses political, social and economic history
using literary, epigraphical and archaeological evidence. No prior
knowledge of ancient history is required.
Spr HIST1200B S01 24148
MWF
10:00-10:50(03)
(G. Oliver)
Brown University
HIST 1200C. History of Greece: From Alexander the Great to the
Roman Conquest.
Covers the decline of Athens as the center of classical civilization; the
conquests of Alexander the Great; the culture of the Greek elite and, to the
extent that it's recoverable, of the indigenous populations of the Hellenistic
world; and Greek contributions to what we call Western Civilization. P
Spr HIST1200C S01 24164
TTh
10:30-11:50(09)
(K. Sacks)
HIST 1205. The Long Fall of the Roman Empire.
Once thought of as the "Dark Ages," this period of western European
history should instead be seen as a fascinating time in which late Roman
culture fused with that of the Germanic tribes, a mixture tempered by a
new religion, Christianity. Issues of particular concern include the symbolic
construction of political authority, the role of religion, the nature of social
loyalties, and gender roles. P
Fall HIST1205
S01 14904
TTh
10:30-11:50(13)
(J. Conant)
HIST 1210. European Intellectual History: Discovering the Modern.
A lecture course, primarily for juniors and seniors, that focuses on salient
philosophic, artistic, and ideological currents of 19th-century Europe.
Beginning with the crisis of political and cultural legitimacy posed by the
French Revolution, it concludes with the consolidation of bourgeois culture
in the 1860s and 1870s and the two great scientific systematizers of these
decades: Darwin and Marx. M WRIT
HIST 1220. European Intellectual and Cultural History: Exploring the
Modern, 1880-1914.
A sequel to HIST 1210 focusing on radical intellectual and cultural currents
that challenged and destabilized the assumptions of Victorian high culture
during the fin de siecle. Through a careful reading of primary texts by
Hobhouse, Nietzsche, Weber, and Freud. The course explores issues
such as the rise of mass consumer culture, neoliberal and neofascist
politics, philosophic irrationalism, psychoanalysis, and the woman
question. WRIT M
HIST 1230A. European Intellectual History: Discovering the Modern.
A lecture course, primarily for juniors and seniors, that focuses on salient
philosophic, artistic, and ideological currents of 19th-century Europe.
Beginning with the crisis of political and cultural legitimacy posed by the
French Revolution, it concludes with the consolidation of bourgeois culture
in the 1860s and 1870s and the two great scientific systematizers of these
decades: Darwin and Marx. WRIT
Fall HIST1230A S01 14905
MWF
10:00-10:50(03)
(M. Gluck)
HIST 1230B. European Intellectual and Cultural History: Exploring the
Modern, 1880-1914.
A sequel to HIST 1210 focusing on radical intellectual and cultural currents
that challenged and destabilized the assumptions of Victorian high culture
during the fin de siecle. Through a careful reading of primary texts by
Hobhouse, Nietzsche, Weber, and Freud. The course explores issues
such as the rise of mass consumer culture, neoliberal and neofascist
politics, philosophic irrationalism, psychoanalysis, and the woman
question. WRIT
Spr HIST1230B S01 24149
MWF
10:00-10:50(03)
(M. Gluck)
HIST 1240. Reason, Revolution and Reaction in Europe.
This course will explore cultural, economic, and political forces taking
place in the globalizing Europe of the 18th and 19th centuries. WRIT
HIST 1260D. Living Together: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in
Medieval Iberia.
A pressing issue in today's pluralistic societies is how people of different
identities (religious, ethnic, etc.) can live together. This course explores
a slice of history that can help us think through questions of difference
in our world: medieval Spain, where for centuries Muslims, Christians,
and Jews lived in close proximity. Through explicit juxtaposition with
modern debates, this course examines how these people understood
and structured their relations with each other in the Iberian Peninsula
between 711 and 1492. Themes include: identity and cultural definition;
power and religious violence; tolerance and intolerance; acculturation and
assimilation; gender and sexuality. WRIT P
Spr HIST1260D S01 24150
TTh
9:00-10:20(08)
(A. Remensnyder)
7
HIST 1262M. Truth on Trial: Justice in Italy, 1400-1800.
Why do we think that one human being can judge another? How did this
activity, enshrined in legal and political systems, profoundly shape society?
We'll examine the changing face of justice, from the medieval ordeal to
judicial torture; expansion of inquisitorial and state law courts; and the
eventual disillusionment with the use of torture and the death penalty in
the eighteenth century. Using Italy as focus, the course explores how
law courts defined social, political, scientific, and religious truth in Italy.
Students may pursue a project on another geographical area for their final
project for the course. LILE WRIT P
Spr HIST1262M S01 24108
TTh
2:30-3:50(11)
(C. Castiglione)
HIST 1266C. English History, 1529-1660.
Examines politics, religion, and society from the Protestant Reformation
to the Puritan Revolution-a period of rapid and dramatic change when the
world, for most English people, was turned upside down. Considers the
experiences and concerns of ordinary men and women, as well as the
elite. Takes in Scotland, Ireland, and the great migration to New England.
P
Fall HIST1266C S01 14928
MWF
2:00-2:50(07)
(T. Harris)
HIST 1266D. British History, 1660-1800.
A survey of British history from the restoration of monarchy to the Wilkes
affair and the loss of the American colonies. In addition to political
developments such as the Glorious Revolution and the rise of party,
examines political ideology (including the great political theorist, John
Locke) and various themes in social history (such as crime, popular
protest, the sexual revolution, and the experiences of women). P
Spr HIST1266D S01 24151
MWF
2:00-2:50(07)
(T. Harris)
HIST 1268B. Russia in the Era of Reforms, Revolutions, and World
Wars.
This course examines the rapid industrialization, modernization, and
urbanization of Russia from the era of the "Great Reforms" (1860s)
through the Second World War. We will examine both the growing
discontentment among the population with autocracy's efforts to maintain
power and the Bolshevik effort to recreate the economy, society, and
everyday life. Topics will include Russian Marxism and socialism,
terrorism, the Russian revolutions of 1917, the rise and consolidation of
Soviet socialism, famine, the red terror, and World War II. WRIT
Fall HIST1268B S01 14929
MWF
10:00-10:50(03)
(E. Pollock)
HIST 1280. English History, 1529-1660.
Examines politics, religion, and society from the Protestant Reformation
to the Puritan Revolution-a period of rapid and dramatic change when the
world, for most English people, was turned upside down. Considers the
experiences and concerns of ordinary men and women, as well as the
elite. Takes in Scotland, Ireland, and the great migration to New England.
P
HIST 1290. British History, 1660-1800.
A survey of British history from the restoration of monarchy to the Wilkes
affair and the loss of the American colonies. In addition to political
developments such as the Glorious Revolution and the rise of party,
examines political ideology (including the great political theorist, John
Locke) and various themes in social history (such as crime, popular
protest, the sexual revolution, and the experiences of women). P
HIST 1310. History of Brazil.
This course charts the history of Brazil from Portuguese contact with the
indigenous population in 1500 to the present. It examines the countrys
political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural development to
understand the causes, interactions, and consequences of conflict,
change, and continuity within Brazilian society. WRIT
Fall HIST1310
S01 14931
TTh
9:00-10:20(08)
(J. Green)
HIST 1313. Brazilian Biographies.
How do the famous Brazilian singers Carmen Miranda and Caetano
Veloso fit into any comprehensive understanding of Brazilian history? Do
the life stories of the eighteenth-century freed slave Xica da Silva or the
twentieth-century favela dweller and best-selling author Carolina Maria de
Jesus represent unique characters or larger social phenomena of different
times and places? How have Brazilian and foreign authors written the
history of Brazil through portraits of individuals. This course will examine
life stories of Brazilians of all races and social classes through texts,
Brown University
7
8
History
documents, and films to see what these biographical portrayals reveal
about Brazilian history and culture.
Spr HIST1313
S01 24213
TTh
2:30-3:50(11)
(J. Green)
HIST 1320. Rebel Island: Cuba, 1492-Present.
Cuba, once the jewel in the Spanish imperial crown, has been home to
some of the world's most radical revolutions and violent retrenchments.
For two centuries, its influence has spread well beyond its borders,
igniting the passion of nationalists and internationalists as well as the
wrath of imperial aggression. This course traces the history of Cuba from
its colonial origins through the present, foregrounding the revolutionary
imaginary that has sustained popular action-from anti-slavery rebellions
through the Cuban Revolution and its discontents-in addition to the
historical processes that have forged one of the world's mot vibrant sociocultural traditions.
Fall HIST1320
S01 14945
TTh
10:30-11:50(13)
(J. Lambe)
HIST 1330. War and Peace in Modern Europe.
This course explores the relationship between war, culture, and society
in modern Europe. The two world wars changed the political, social, and
cultural landscape of Europe, and by extension, of the rest of the world,
not least the United States. We will not delve into the military history of
these vast conflicts; instead, we will examine how the experience of total
war remolded European understanding and practices of memory and
commemoration, culture and representation, humanity and civilization,
utopia and revolution, catastrophe and identity. We will read influential
scholarly texts and literary works, and watch important contemporary
films.M
HIST 1331. The Rise and Fall of the Aztecs: Mexico, 1300-1600.
This course will chart the evolution of the Mexica (better known as
the Aztecs) from nomads to the dominant people of central Mexico;
examine their political, cultural, and religious practices (including human
sacrifice); explore the structure and limitations of their empire; and
analyze their defeat by Spanish conquistadors and their response to
European colonization. We will draw upon a variety of pre- and postconquest sources, treating the Aztecs as a case study in the challenges of
ethnohistory. P
Spr HIST1331
S01 24152
MWF
12:00-12:50(05)
(R. Cope)
HIST 1333. The Mexican Revolution.
An in-depth study of the Mexican Revolution. The focus is on the years of
revolutionary violence (1910-1920), but considerable attention is also paid
to the roots of the Revolution and to its socioeconomic and political impact
in the period 1920-1940.
Fall HIST1333
S01 14906
MWF
12:00-12:50(12)
(R. Cope)
HIST 1350. Modern Genocide and Other Crimes against Humanity.
This course explores the emergence, evolution, varieties, underlying
causes, and means of confronting and coming to terms with genocide
and other crimes against humanity in the 20th century. We will discuss
the origins of genocide and the subsequent conceptualization of this
phenomenon; manifestations of colonial, imperial, racial, and communist
genocide; war crimes and mass crimes by totalitarian regimes; and
policies of mass expulsions and "ethnic cleansing." We will conclude with
attempts to curb and punish genocide by means of international justice. M
HIST 1381. Latin American History and Film: Memory, Narrative and
Nation.
This course provides an introduction to cinematic interpretations of Latin
American history. Together we will explore how (and why) filmmakers
have used motion pictures to tell particular narratives about the Latin
American past. We will critically examine a broad range of films dealing
with historical questions, and explore what these films have to say about
how gender and sexuality, imperialism, slavery, the church, revolution
and repression shaped the history of the region. In order to explore these
topics we will examine films in relation to academic, autobiographical, and
popular texts, all of which provide different ways of representing the past.
Fall HIST1381
S01 14935
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(D. Rodriguez)
HIST 1410. Russia in the Era of Reforms, Revolutions, and World
Wars.
This course examines the rapid industrialization, modernization, and
urbanization of Russia from the era of the "Great Reforms" (1860s)
through the Second World War. We will examine both the growing
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discontentment among the population with autocracy's efforts to maintain
power and the Bolshevik effort to recreate the economy, society, and
everyday life. Topics will include Russian Marxism and socialism,
terrorism, the Russian revolutions of 1917, the rise and consolidation of
Soviet socialism, famine, the red terror, and World War II. WRIT M
HIST 1430. Truth on Trial: Justice in Italy, 1400-1800.
Why do we think that one human being can judge another? How did
this activity, enshrined in legal and political systems, profoundly shape
society? This course examines the changing face of justice, from the
medieval ordeal to judicial torture; the expansion of inquisitorial and state
law courts; and the eventual disillusionment with the use of torture and the
death penalty in the eighteenth century. Using Italy as a focus, the course
explores how law courts defined social, political, scientific, and religious
truth in Italy. Students may pursue a project on another geographical area
for their final project for the course. LILE WRIT P
HIST 1455. The Making of the Modern Middle East.
From North Africa to Afghanistan, Turkey to the Arabian peninsula, the
goal of this course is to provide students with a robust background in
modern Middle Eastern history, broadly defined. We begin in the long
nineteenth century, an era of intense social and economic transformation
that led to the collapse of the Ottoman empire and emergence of a new
state system, primarily under British and French colonial rule. We then
explore forces shaping the contemporary region, including nationalism,
oil, regional conflicts and the Cold War, Islamism and mass politics, and
military interventions by the US and other world powers. M
HIST 1470. Southern African History.
This course examines major themes of the history of southern Africa from
the earliest times until 1994, with a heavy emphasis on historiographical
debates. Our discussions of the South African past will always be informed
by a consideration of the approach of the scholars who have interpreted
and presented it as history. Our major questions concern the origins of
historical change and the creation of racial groups. We will probe the
significance of race in South African history but also the limitations of its
explanatory power. Readings are arranged at three levels. First, we will be
reading primary sources, to gain experience in working with the evidence
that informs historical work. Second, we will be working through a concise
textbook that summarizes the major themes of South African history. Third,
we will be reading specialized scholarly books and articles, chosen to
illustrate recent discussions about the interpretation of South Africa's past.
The course will meet twice a week for lecture and discussion groups will
meet once a week. E
HIST 1490. History of Medicine I: Medical Traditions in the Old World
Before 1700.
People have always attempted to promote health and prolong life, and to
ameliorate bodily suffering. Those living in parts of Eurasia also developed
textual traditions that, together with material remains, allow historians
to explore their medical practices and explanations, including changes
in their traditions, sometimes caused by interactions with other peoples
of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The course will introduce students to the
major medical traditions of the Old World to about 1700, with an emphasis
on Europe, and explore some of the reasons for change. A knowledge
of languages and the social and natural sciences is welcome but not
required. Not open to first year students. P
HIST 1491. History of Medicine II: The Development of Scientific
Medicine in Europe and the World.
From the 18th century onward, Western medicine has claimed universal
validity due to its scientific foundations, relegating other kinds of medicine
to the status of "alternative" practices. The course therefore examines the
development of scientific medicine in Europe and elsewhere up to the late
20th century, and its relationships with other medical ideas, practices, and
traditions. Students with a knowledge of languages and the social and
natural sciences are welcome but no prerequisites are required. Not open
to first year students. E
HIST 1503. Antebellum America and the Road to Civil War.
Surveys society, culture, and politics between 1800 and 1860. Topics
include the social order of slavery, the market revolution and its impact,
abolition and other evangelical reform movements, and the development
of sectional identities.
Brown University
Spr HIST1503
S01 24157
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(S. Rockman)
HIST 1505. Making America Modern.
This course surveys a crucial period in American history between the
end of Reconstruction and the beginning of World War I. During this time,
the United States transitioned from a relatively fragmented, traditional,
and largely agricultural society into one that was remarkably diverse,
increasingly urban, and highly industrialized. In surveying this important
transitional period, we will pay particular attention to far-reaching changes
in the nation's business and economic life, its social movements, as well
as its cultural developments, all with an eye to understanding how the
United States became one of the world's most commanding economic,
political, and cultural powers.
Fall HIST1505
S01 14947
MWF
11:00-11:50(04)
(L. Rieppel)
HIST 1510A. China's Late Empires.
A post-nationalist perspective on history in China from 1200-1930, with
emphasis on empire--formation, gender, and daily life in the Mongol
Yuan, Chinese Ming, and Manchu Qing empires, as well as nationalist
reconstructions of the Chinese past in the early twentieth century. P
HIST 1511. Sinners, Saints, and Heretics: Religion in Early America.
This course considers the major people, events, and issues in the history
of religion in North America, from pre-contact Native cosmologies to the
tumultuous events of the Civil War. Attention will be given to "religion as
lived" by ordinary people, as well as to the ways that religion shaped (or
not) larger cultural issues such as immigration, public policy, social reform,
warfare, democracy, slavery, and women's rights. Prior knowledge of
religion in North America is not required; there are no prerequisites to this
course, and it is open to all students. P WRIT
Fall HIST1511
S01 15419
TTh
10:30-11:50(13)
(L. Fisher)
HIST 1512. First Nations: The People and Cultures of Native North
America to 1800.
This course explores the history of North America through the eyes of
the original inhabitants from pre-contact times up through 1800. Far from
a simplistic story of European conquest, the histories of Euroamericans
and Natives were and continue to be intertwined in surprising ways.
Although disease, conquest, and death are all part of this history, this
course also tell another story: the big and small ways in which these First
Nations shaped their own destiny, controlled resources, utilized local court
systems, and drew on millennia-old rituals and practices to sustain their
communities despite the crushing weight of colonialism. WRIT P
Spr HIST1512
S01 24153
MWF
10:00-10:50(03)
(L. Fisher)
HIST 1530. The Intimate State: The Politics of Gender, Sex, and
Family in the U.S., 1873-Present.
Examines the "intimate politics" of gender norms, sex and sexuality,
and family structure in American history, from the 1870s to the present,
focusing on law and political conflict. Topics include laws regulating
sex and marriage; social norms governing gender roles in both private
and public spheres; the range of political perspectives (from feminist
to conservative) on sex, sexuality, and family, and the relationship of
gender to notions of nationhood and the role of the modern state. Some
background in history strongly recommended.
Spr HIST1530
S01 24739
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(R. Self)
HIST 1531. Political Movements in Twentieth-Century America.
Political movements in the United States in the twentieth century. History
and theory. Highlights of the course include: populism, progressivism,
segregationism, first wave feminism, labor movement, civil rights, new
left, second wave feminism, new right. The course focuses on the origins,
nature, ideologies, and outcomes of major political movements on both left
and right in the twentieth century United States. WRIT
Fall HIST1531
S01 15420
MWF
2:00-2:50(07)
(R. Self)
HIST 1532. Black Freedom Struggle Since 1945.
Examines the extended history of the Civil Rights Movement in the
U.S. with a range of primary sources. Starting at World War II, the
course considers the roles of the courts, the government, organizations,
local communities, and individuals in the ongoing struggle for African
American equality, focusing on African American agency. Sources include
photographs, documentaries, movies, letters, speeches, autobiography,
and secondary readings. Must have taken at least one post-1865 U.S.
9
history course demonstrating a foundation in this time period. Enrollment
limited to 50.
Spr HIST1532
S01 24210
MWF
2:00-2:50(07)
(F. Hamlin)
HIST 1540. Samurai and Merchants, Prostitutes and Priests:
Japanese Urban Culture in the Early Modern Period.
Examines the cultural traditions of the urban samurai, the wealthy
merchant, and the plebian artisan that emerged in the great metropolises
of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto during the early modern period. Focuses on the
efforts of the government to mold certain kinds of cultural development for
its own purposes and the efforts of various social groups to redirect those
efforts to suit their desires and self-interest. P
HIST 1551. American Urban History, 1870-1965.
A survey with a specialized focus exploring American history from an
urban frame of reference. Topics include the social consequences of the
modern city, politics, reform, and federal-city relations. WRIT
Fall HIST1551
S01 15422
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(H. Chudacoff)
HIST 1553. Empires in America to 1890.
This course surveys the development of American foreign relations from
initial encounters between Native Americans and newly arrived Europeans
to the extension of EuroAmerican power beyond the continental United
States. By being attentive to a wider global context, we will attempt
to understand the trajectory of "America" from a colonial hinterland to
dominant world power.
Fall HIST1553
S01 15423
TTh
2:30-3:50(11)
(N. Shibusawa)
HIST 1554. American Empire Since 1890.
This survey of twentieth-century US foreign relations will focus on the
interplay between the rise of the United States as a superpower and
American culture and society. Topics include: ideology and U.S. foreign
policy, imperialism and American political culture, U.S. social movements
and international affairs, and the relationship between U.S. power abroad
and domestic race, gender and class arrangements.
Spr HIST1554
S01 24206
MWF
2:00-2:50(07)
(N. Shibusawa)
HIST 1570. American Legal and Constitutional History.
History of American law and constitutions from European settlement to
the end of the 20th century. Not a comprehensive survey but a study of
specific issues or episodes connecting law and history, including witchcraft
trials, slavery, contests over Native American lands, delineations of race
and gender, regulation of morals and the economy, and the construction of
privacy.
Spr HIST1570
S01 24550
MWF
12:00-12:50(05)
(M. Vorenberg)
HIST 1571. The Making of Modern East Asia.
This course examines Asia in the shaping of the modern world, from
competing definitions of empires circa 1800 to the rise of the notion of the
twenty-first as a "Pacific Century." It investigates the definition(s) of Asia
as a world region, explores transnational interactions and emphasizes
Asians as historical actors via written, visual and aural sources. Events
are placed in the context of key historical paradigms, including varying
definitions of modernity, the rise of the nation-state, birth of mass politics,
new mechanisms of war, the language of self-determination, changing
views of gender, shifting types of media and consumption, etc. M WRIT
HIST 1581. Inequality and Change: South Asia after 1947.
With a focus on inequality and change this lecture course will survey
South Asia's history post-1947, with the end of colonial rule and the
making of nation-states. With a historical attention to 'inequality', we will
interrogate the inequalities cast by rural poverty, environment, religion,
caste, gender and ethnicity and the remarkable contestations of people in
the region that have challenged state power, and have thus shaped South
Asia's postcolonial histories. We will particularly focus on histories from
below, and engage historical and literary writings, newspapers as well as
documentary films. M
HIST 1600. The Rise and Fall of the Aztecs: Mexico, 1300-1600.
This course will chart the evolution of the Mexica (better known as
the Aztecs) from nomads to the dominant people of central Mexico;
examine their political, cultural, and religious practices (including human
sacrifice); explore the structure and limitations of their empire; and
analyze their defeat by Spanish conquistadors and their response to
European colonization. We will draw upon a variety of pre- and post-
Brown University
9
10
History
conquest sources, treating the Aztecs as a case study in the challenges of
ethnohistory.
HIST 1620. Colonial Latin America.
Colonial Latin America, from Columbus's voyage in 1492 to Independence
in the nineteenth century, was the creation of three peoples: Europeans,
Native Americans, and Africans. The Spanish and Portuguese conquerors
brought with them the world of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the
Renaissance. Native Americans lived there already, in rich empires and
hunter-gatherer bands. Africans came as slaves from Senegal, Nigeria,
Congo and Angola, bringing old traditions and creating new ones. These
diverse peoples blended together to form a new people. This was a place
of violence, slavery and oppression -- but also of art, faith, new societies
and new ideas. P
HIST 1630. Modern Latin America.
This course is an introduction to the history of modern Latin America.
Through lectures, discussions, shared readings, we will explore major
themes in the past two hundred years of Latin American history, from
the early nineteenth-century independence movements to the recent
“Left Turn” in Latin American politics. Some of the topics we will examine
include the racial politics of state-formation; the fraught history of U.S.Latin American relations; the cultural politics of nationalism; how modernity
was defined in relation to gender and sexuality; and the emergence of
authoritarian regimes and revolutionary mobilizations, and the role of
religion in shaping these processes. M
HIST 1640. Inequality + Change: South Asia after 1947.
With a focus on inequality and change this lecture course will survey
South Asia's history post-1947, with the end of colonial rule and the
making of nation-states. With a historical attention to 'inequality', we will
interrogate the inequalities cast by rural poverty, environment, religion,
caste, gender and ethnicity and the remarkable contestations of people in
the region that have challenged state power, and have thus shaped South
Asia's postcolonial histories. We will particularly focus on histories from
below, and engage historical and literary writings, newspapers as well as
documentary films.
Fall HIST1640
S01 14946
MWF
8:00-8:50(01)
(V. Zamindar)
HIST 1660. The Mexican Revolution.
An in-depth study of the Mexican Revolution. The focus is on the years of
revolutionary violence (1910-1920), but considerable attention is also paid
to the roots of the Revolution and to its socioeconomic and political impact
in the period 1920-1940. M
HIST 1670. History of Brazil.
This course charts the history of Brazil from Portuguese contact with the
indigenous population in 1500 to the present. It examines the countrys
political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural development to
understand the causes, interactions, and consequences of conflict,
change, and continuity within Brazilian society. WRIT E
HIST 1730. Antebellum America and the Road to Civil War.
Surveys society, culture, and politics between 1800 and 1860. Topics
include the social order of slavery, the market revolution and its impact,
abolition and other evangelical reform movements, and the development
of sectional identities. M
HIST 1740. Capitalism, Land and Water: A World History: 1350-1848.
The choice of how we allocate land and water shapes famine, drought,
war, homelessness and poverty. Over the centuries, utopians and
empires have looked to very different systems of allocation, from village
communalism to plantation systems to state provision of infrastructure to
free-market systems. This course mixes histories of political economy,
theology, literature, and anthropology, asking how imaginary landscapes
become the material realities of farm and highway. Themes will include
the rise of modern, surveying, engineering, cities, infrastructure systems,
and land reform. It will ask about the consequences of history in an era of
environmental disaster, famine, mortgages, and evictions.
Fall HIST1740
S01 15661
MWF
1:00-1:50(06)
(J. Guldi)
HIST 1741. Capitalism, Land and Water: A World History: 1848 to the
present.
The choice of how we allocate land and water shapes famine, drought,
war, homelessness and poverty. Over the centuries, utopians and
empires have looked to very different systems of allocation, from village
10
History
communalism to plantation systems to state provision of infrastructure
to free-market systems. While an economist or political scientist might
study these regimes through abstraction, the historian dives into the
social context of different systems, reading government documents,
social protests, as well as architecture, maps, and the landscape itself,
as an archive that testifies as to the nature of consent, participation, and
resistance in a political system. WRIT
Spr HIST1741
S01 24622
TTh
2:30-3:50(11)
(J. Guldi)
HIST 1755. The Intimate State: The Politics of Gender, Sex, and
Family in the U.S., 1873-Present.
Examines the "intimate politics" of gender norms, sex and sexuality,
and family structure in American history, from the 1870s to the present,
focusing on law and political conflict. Topics include laws regulating
sex and marriage; social norms governing gender roles in both private
and public spheres; the range of political perspectives (from feminist
to conservative) on sex, sexuality, and family, and the relationship of
gender to notions of nationhood and the role of the modern state. Some
background in history strongly recommended. M
HIST 1760. Political Movements in Twentieth-Century America.
Political movements in the United States in the twentieth century. History
and theory. Highlights of the course include: populism, progressivism,
segregationism, first wave feminism, labor movement, civil rights, new
left, second wave feminism, new right. The course focuses on the origins,
nature, ideologies, and outcomes of major political movements on both left
and right in the twentieth century United States. M
HIST 1780. Making America Modern, 1877-1920.
This course surveys a crucial period in American history between the
end of Reconstruction and the beginning of World War I. During this time,
the United States transitioned from a relatively fragmented, traditional,
and largely agricultural society into one that was remarkably diverse,
increasingly urban, and highly industrialized. In surveying this important
transitional period, we will pay particular attention to far-reaching changes
in the nation's business and economic life, its social movements, as well
as its cultural developments, all with an eye to understanding how the
United States became one of the world's most commanding economic,
political, and cultural powers. M
HIST 1800. Sinners, Saints, and Heretics: Religion in Early America.
This course considers the major people, events, and issues in the history
of religion in North America, from pre-contact Native cosmologies to the
tumultuous events of the Civil War. Attention will be given to "religion as
lived" by ordinary people, as well as to the ways that religion shaped (or
not) larger cultural issues such as immigration, public policy, social reform,
warfare, democracy, slavery, and women's rights. Prior knowledge of
religion in North America is not required; there are no prerequisites to this
course, and it is open to all students. E
HIST 1805. First Nations: the People and Cultures of Native North
America to 1800.
This course explores the history of North America through the eyes of
the original inhabitants from pre-contact times up through 1800. Far from
a simplistic story of European conquest, the histories of Euroamericans
and Natives were and continue to be intertwined in surprising ways.
Although disease, conquest, and death are all part of this history, this
course also tell another story: the big and small ways in which these First
Nations shaped their own destiny, controlled resources, utilized local court
systems, and drew on millennia-old rituals and practices to sustain their
communities despite the crushing weight of colonialism. WRIT P
HIST 1825M. Science at the Crossroads.
This course will look closely at the dramatic developments that
fundamentally challenged Western Science between 1859 and the
advent of the Second World War in the 1930s. Its primary focus will be
on a variety of texts written in an effort to understand and interpret the
meanings of fundamentally new ideas including from the biological side-evolutionary theory, genetic theory, and eugenics; from the physical side
relativity theory, and quantum mechanics. The class should be equally
accessible to students whose primary interests lie in the sciences and
those who are working in the humanities. WRIT
Fall HIST1825M S01 15424
MWF
2:00-2:50(07)
(J. Richards)
Brown University
HIST 1825R. The Science of Life: Biology, 1790 to Present.
This course will explore the history of the life sciences from their origin
in the late 18th century to the present day. We will cover a diverse
range of topics from the cell theory, physiology, evolution, development,
paleontology, ecology, classical genetics, and molecular biology all the
way to contemporary advances in genomics, biotechnology, and the microbiome. Throughout, we will connect technical developments within the life
sciences to broader changes in social, cultural, and economic history.
Spr HIST1825R S01 24215
MWF
11:00-11:50(04)
(L. Rieppel)
HIST 1830. American Urban History, 1870-1950.
A survey with a specialized focus exploring American history from an
urban frame of reference. Topics include the social consequences of the
modern city, politics, reform, and federal-city relations. M
HIST 1830M. From Medieval Bedlam to Prozac Nation: Intimate
Histories of Psychiatry and Self.
Humankind has long sought out keepers of its secrets and interpreters of
its dreams: seers, priests, and, finally, psychiatrists. This lecture course
will introduce students to the history of psychiatry in Europe, the United
States, and beyond, from its pre-modern antecedents through the present
day. Our focus will be on the long age of asylum psychiatry, but we will
also consider the medical and social histories that intersect with, but
are not contained by, asylum psychiatry: the rise of modern diagnostic
systems, psychoanalysis, sexuality and stigma, race, eugenics, and
pharmaceutical presents and futures.
Spr HIST1830M S01 24642
TTh
10:30-11:50(09)
(J. Lambe)
HIST 1835A. Unearthing the Body: History, Archaeology, and Biology
at the End of Antiquity.
How was the physical human body imagined, understood, and treated
in life and death in the late ancient Mediterranean world? Drawing on
evidence from written sources, artistic representations, and archaeological
excavations, this class will explore this question by interweaving thematic
lectures and student analysis of topics including disease and medicine,
famine, asceticism, personal adornment and ideals of beauty, suffering,
slavery, and the boundaries between the visible world and the afterlife, in
order to understand and interpret the experiences of women, men, and
children who lived as individuals—and not just as abstractions—at the end
of antiquity. P
Spr HIST1835A S01 24154
MWF
1:00-1:50(06)
(J. Conant)
HIST 1850. American Legal and Constitutional History.
History of American law and constitutions from European settlement to
the end of the 20th century. Not a comprehensive survey but a study of
specific issues or episodes connecting law and history, including witchcraft
trials, slavery, contests over Native American lands, delineations of race
and gender, regulation of morals and the economy, and the construction of
privacy. E
HIST 1855A. Self-Fashioning and Souvenirs: History and Culture on
the Grand Tour.
"A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority,
from his not having seen what is expected a man should see," said
Samuel Johnson in 1776. By then, the Grand Tour was an established rite
for British, European, and even North American gentlefolk. Using literary,
historical, and art historical methods, this course traces the rise and fall
of the Grand Tour ca. 1600-1900. Exploring themes of cosmopolitanism,
classicism, and curiosity through images, objects and texts, we analyze
the gendered, class and national commitments of the tour and probe its
effects on those who experienced it.
Spr HIST1855A S01 24155
TTh
1:00-2:20(10)
(J. Kamensky)
11
policy, imperialism and American political culture, U.S. social movements
and international affairs, and the relationship between U.S. power abroad
and domestic race, gender and class arrangements. M
HIST 1930A. History of American School Reform (EDUC 1200).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1200.
Spr HIST1930A S01 25297
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1930B. Academic Freedom on Trial: A Century of Campus
Controversies (EDUC 1740).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1740.
HIST 1930C. The Century of Immigration (AMST 1611Z).
Interested students must register for AMST 1611Z.
HIST 1930D. Making America: Twentieth-Century U.S. Immigrant/
Ethnic Literature (AMST 1611A).
Interested students must register for AMST 1611A.
HIST 1930E. Health and Healing in American History (GNSS 1960B).
Interested students must register for GNSS 1960B.
HIST 1930F. Renaissance Italy (ITAL 1360).
Interested students must register for ITAL 1360.
HIST 1930G. Black Freedom Struggle Since 1945 (AFRI 1090).
Interested students must register for AFRI 1090.
HIST 1930H. Teaching Topics in American History and Literature,
1945-1980 (EDUC 1620).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1620.
HIST 1930I. American Higher Education in Historical Context (EDUC
1730).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1730.
Fall HIST1930I S01 16351
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1930J. Word, Image and Power in Renaissance Italy (ITAL 1580).
Interested students must register for ITAL 1580.
HIST 1930L. The History of American Education (EDUC 1020).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1020.
HIST 1930M. History of African-American Education (EDUC 1050).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1050.
HIST 1930N. Germany, Alcohol, and the Global Nineteenth Century
(GRMN 1661E).
Interested students must register for GRMN 1661E.
HIST 1930P. Development, Dependency, and Decline in Africa,
1950-2025 (AFRI 1640).
Interested students must register for AFRI 1640.
HIST 1930Q. History of the State of Israel: 1948 to the Present (JUDS
1711).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1711.
Fall HIST1930Q S01 16352
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1930R. Roman History I: The Rise and Fall of an Imperial
Republic (CLAS 1310).
Interested students must register for CLAS 1310.
HIST 1930S. Roman History II: The Roman Empire and Its Impact
(CLAS 1320).
Interested students must register for CLAS 1320.
HIST 1930T. History of African-American Education (EDUC 1050).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1050.
HIST 1890. Empires in America to 1890.
This course surveys the development of American foreign relations from
initial encounters between Native Americans and newly arrived Europeans
to the extension of EuroAmerican power beyond the continental United
States. By being attentive to a wider global context, we will attempt
to understand the trajectory of "America" from a colonial hinterland to
dominant world power. E
HIST 1930U. Slavery in the Ancient World (CLAS 1120E).
Interested students must register for CLAS 1120E.
HIST 1900. American Empire Since 1890.
This survey of twentieth-century US foreign relations will focus on the
interplay between the rise of the United States as a superpower and
American culture and society. Topics include: ideology and U.S. foreign
Spr HIST1930W S01 25312
HIST 1930V. History of Zionism and the Birth of the State of Israel
(JUDS 1712).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1712.
HIST 1930W. Introduction to Yiddish Culture (JUDS 1713).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1713.
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1930X. Antisemitism and Islamophobia (JUDS 1710).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1710.
Brown University
11
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History
HIST 1930Y. The Pogrom: Violence in Modern Jewish History (JUDS
1719).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1719.
HIST 1960S. 17th Century Portuguese World (POBS 1600S).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600S.
HIST 1931A. Kabbalah: Jews, Mysticism, and Magic (JUDS 1740).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1740.
HIST 1960T. Modernity, Jews, and Urban Identities in Central Europe
(JUDS 1718).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1718.
HIST 1931B. Money, Power, Sex and Love: the Modern Jewish Family
in Europe and America (JUDS1722).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1722.
HIST 1960U. Popular Cultures, 1400-1800 (ITAL 1430).
Interested students must register for ITAL 1430.
HIST 1931C. The End of Modern Jewish History (JUDS 1716).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1716.
HIST 1931D. Society and Population in Ancient Greece (CLAS 1130).
Interested students must register for CLAS 1130.
HIST 1931E. The Culture of Death in Ancient Rome (CLAS 1420).
Interested students must register for CLAS 1420.
Spr HIST1931E S01 25310
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1960A. African Environmental History (AFRI 1060M).
Interested students must register for AFRI 1060M.
HIST 1960B. Alien-nation: Latina/o Im/migration in Comparative
Perspective (AMST 1903B).
Interested students must register for AMST 1903B.
HIST 1960C. End of the West: The Closing of the U.S. Western
Frontier in Images and Narrative (AMST 1904D).
Interested students must register for AMST 1904D.
HIST 1960D. Africa Since 1950 (AFRI 1060A).
Interested students must register for AFRI 1060A.
HIST 1960E. Word and Utopia: Seventeenth-century Portuguese
World (POBS 1600S).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600S.
HIST 1960F. The Portuguese Colonial Empire in a Comparative
Perspective (XIX-XX Centuries) (POBS 1600Y).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600Y.
HIST 1960G. The Teen Age: Youth, Society and Culture in Early Cold
War America (AMST 1700D).
Interested students must register for AMST 1700D.
HIST 1960H. Methods and Problems in Islam: Heresy and Orthodoxy
(RELS 1530B).
Interested students must register for RELS 1530B.
HIST 1960I. Portuguese Discoveries and Early Modern Globalization
(POBS 1600D).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600D.
HIST 1960J. Knowledge Networks and Information Economies in the
Early Modern Period (HMAN 1970Z).
Interested students must register for HMAN 1970Z.
HIST 1960K. The End of Empires? A Global History of Decolonization
(POBS 1600I).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600I.
HIST 1960L. Conflicts, Diasporas and Diversities: Religion in the
Early Portuguese Empire (POBS 1600J).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600J.
HIST 1960M. The Birth of the Modern World: A Global History of
Empires (POBS 1601A).
Interested students must register for POBS 1601A.
HIST 1960N. South Africa since 1990 (AFRI 1060T).
Interested students must register for AFRI 1060T.
HIST 1960P. Museum Histories (AMST 1903I).
Interested students must register for AMST 1903I.
HIST 1960Q. Jews and Muslims (JUDS 1723).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1723.
HIST 1960R. Urban Schools in Historical Perspective (EDUC 1720).
Interested students must register for EDUC 1720.
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History
Spr HIST1960T S01 25309
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1960W. World of Walden Pond: Transcendentalism as a Social
and Intellectual Movement (HMAN 1971F).
Interested students must register for HMAN 1971F.
HIST 1960X. American Jews and Israel: From AIPAC to J Street (JUDS
1717).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1717.
HIST 1960Y. Global Empires in the Early Modern World (POBS
1600U).
Interested students must register for POBS 1600U.
HIST 1960Z. Zionists Anti Zionists and Post Zionists: Jewish
Controversies in the 20th Century (JUDS 1752).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1752.
HIST 1961A. Jews and Revolution (JUDS 1701).
Interested students must register for JUDS 1701.
Fall HIST1961A S01 16360
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1961B. Cities and Urban Culture in China.
Treats the development of cities and urban culture in China from roughly
the sixteenth century (the beginning of a great urban boom) to the present.
We will look at the physical layout of cities, city government and social
structure, and urban economic life, often from a comparative perspective.
The course focuses, however, on the changing culture of city life, tracing
the evolution of a vernacular popular culture from the late imperial period,
through the rise of Shanghai commercial culture in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, to the diverse regional urban cultures of
contemporary China.
Fall HIST1961B S01 14907
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(C. Brokaw)
HIST 1961E. Medieval Kyoto - Medieval Japan.
In the Western historical lexicon, the term “medieval” often conjures
up images of backwardness and stagnation. Japan, however, pulsated
with political, economic, and cultural creativity during its middle ages.
This course explores topics central to Japan’s medieval revolution: The emergence of a samurai-led shogunate and the creation of new
warrior values ; -The appearance of Zen and popular religious sects ;
-The creation of innovative “Zen arts” such as noh drama and the tea
ceremony, and; -The destruction of Kyoto and its subsequent resurgence
in the sixteenth century as a city shared by aristocrats, merchants, and
artisans. P WRIT
HIST 1961H. Korea: North and South.
This course offers a systematic investigation of the political, economic, and
social histories of Korea, North and South, from the inception of the two
governments following liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945 to the
present day. Enrollment limited to 20. WRIT
HIST 1961I. North Korea: Past, Present, Future.
Typically, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is portrayed
as a rogue nation ruled by the Kim family, autocrats who are either
“mad” or “bad” and whose policies have traumatized the country’s
citizens, wrecked the economy, and threatened nuclear disaster on
South Korea, East Asia, even the USA. This course moves beyond such
stereotypes to examine the interconnected political, economic, and cultural
transformations of the DPRK from 1945 to the present. Also included are
the lived experiences of the Korean people, the plight of refugees, and the
question of unification with South Korea.
Fall HIST1961I S01 16550
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(J. McClain)
HIST 1963L. Barbarians, Byzantines, and Berbers: Early Medieval
North Africa, AD 300-1050.
This class explores the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages through
the lens of western North Africa. Divided internally by theological disputes
and inter-communal violence, and subjected to repeated conquests and
Brown University
reconquests from the outside, in this period North Africa witnessed the
triumph of Islam over Christianity; the rise and fall of ephemeral kingdoms,
empires, and caliphates; the gradual desertion of once-prosperous cities
and rural settlements; the rising strength of Berber confederations; and the
continuing ability of trade to transcend political boundaries and to link the
southern Mediterranean littoral to the outside world. WRIT P
Spr HIST1963L S01 24644
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(J. Conant)
HIST 1963Q. Sex, Power, and God: A Medieval Perspective.
Cross-dressing knights, virgin saints, homophobic priests, and mystics
who speak in the language of erotic desire are but some of the medieval
people considered in this seminar. This course examines how conceptions
of sin, sanctity, and sexuality in the High Middle Ages intersected with
structures of power in this period. While the seminar primarily focuses
on Christian culture, it also considers Muslim and Jewish experience.
Enrollment limited to 20. WRIT P
Fall HIST1963Q S01 14936
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(A. Remensnyder)
HIST 1964B. The Enchanted World: Magic, Angels, and Demons in
Early Modern Europe.
European fascination with the unseen world reached its highpoint
alongside the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution,and
Enlightenment. Between 1500 and 1800, theologians, natural philosopher,
princes, and peasants devoted enormous energy to understanding,
communicating with, and eliminating a host of ethereal creatures, including
ghosts, angels, demons, vampires, nature spirits, and witches. Some
also sought to access the praeternatural powers that these creatures
seemed to command. This course explores the intellectual, social, political,
and religious origins of the interest in this unseen world, the structures
Europeans created to grapple with it, as well as the factors that ultimately
led to its demise. P
Fall HIST1964B S01 14937
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(T. Nummedal)
HIST 1964D. Women in Early Modern England.
Selected topics in the social history of early modern England
(c.1500-1800), with particular emphasis on the experiences of women.
Themes to be addressed will include the family, working life, education,
crime, politics, religion, and the early feminists. Not open to freshmen
sophomores. P
Fall HIST1964D S01 14930
F
3:00-5:30(14)
(T. Harris)
HIST 1964E. The English Revolution.
Looks at the origins and nature of the English Civil War and Republican
experiment in government (1642-1660) through a close examination of
primary source materials. Considers not only the constitutional conflict
between the crown and parliament, but also the part played by those outof-doors in the revolutionary upheaval, the rise of popular radicalism, and
the impact of events in Scotland and Ireland. P
Spr HIST1964E S01 24158
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(T. Harris)
HIST 1967C. Making Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-Present.
In January 1959, the forces of rebel leader Fidel Castro entered Havana
and forever altered the destiny of their nation and world. We will examine
the question of political hegemony and the many silences built into the
achievement of Revolution—from race to sexuality to culture—even as
we acknowledge that popular support for that Revolution has often been
both genuine and heartfelt. It is this counterpoint between the Revolution’s
successes in the social, economic, and political spheres and its equally
patent exclusions that have shaped Cuba’s history in the past and will
continue to guide its path to an uncertain future. WRIT
Spr HIST1967C S01 24623
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(J. Lambe)
HIST 1967E. In the Shadow of Revolution: Mexico Since 1940.
This course traces political, social, and economic developments in Mexico
since the consolidation of the revolutionary regime in the 1930s. The
topics addressed include: the post World War II economic “miracle”; the
rise of new social movements; the Tlatelolco massacre; the deepening
crisis of the PRI (the governing party) in the 1980s and 1990s; the
Zapatista rebellion; violence and migration on the northern border; and the
war against narcotraficantes.
Spr HIST1967E S01 24159
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(R. Cope)
13
HIST 1967Q. Gender and Sexuality in the Modern History of Latin
America.
This seminar explores how gender shaped the political and social history
of 19th and 20th century Latin America. Together, we will explore some
themes at the center of this growing body of scholarship, such as the
role of honor and sexual morality in shaping post-independence Latin
American societies, the efforts of states to regulate the family, and the role
of gender in the organization of the modern labor force. Throughout the
semester, we will discuss the intersections of race, gender and class that
are at the heart of changing conceptions of sexual morality and ideals of
modern family organization.
Fall HIST1967Q S01 14938
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(D. Rodriguez)
HIST 1967R. History of Rio de Janeiro.
From colonial outpost to capital of the Portuguese Empire, from
sleepy port to urban megalopolis, this seminar examines the history
of Rio de Janeiro from the sixteenth century to the present. Using
an interdisciplinary perspective rooted in historical analyses, we will
analyze multiple representations of the city, its people, and geography in
relationship to Brazilian history, culture, and society.
Spr HIST1967R S01 24160
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(J. Green)
HIST 1967S. Revolutions in Latin American History.
From the Spanish invasion through the insurgencies of the twentieth
century, from New Mexico to Chile, insurrections, coups and revolutions
have played a central role in Latin American history. This class examines
that history of violence and revolutionary dreams. Relying on a mix
of primary and secondary sources, the class focuses on case studies
including the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Great Rebellion of Tupac Amaru
in 1780, the Haitian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution and its South
American consequences, the Sandinista revolution, the Argentinian
montaneros and the Shining Path in the 1980s. P
Spr HIST1967S S01 24214
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(J. Mumford)
HIST 1968. Approaches to The Middle East.
This seminar introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Middle
East Studies in the broader context of the history of area studies in the
humanities and social sciences. Why and when did the Middle East
become an area of study? What are the approaches and topics that
have shaped the development of this field? And what are the political
implications of contending visions for its future? The readings sample
canonical and alternative works and the classes feature visits by leading
scholars who research and write on this region. WRIT
Fall HIST1968
S01 15426
F
3:00-5:30(14)
(B. Doumani)
HIST 1968K. The Ottomans: Faith, Law, Empire.
This seminar explores the rise and fall of the longest-lived Muslim dynasty
in history, the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923). From Turkish nomads in
Asia Minor to multiethnic empire spanning three continents, the Ottoman
Sultans were the premier power of southeast Europe, north Africa, and
the eastern Mediterranean in the early-modern world. From medieval
“Turko-Persia” to the catastrophes of World War I, we shall engage difficult
historical questions surrounding religion and empire, Islam and secularism,
nationalism and statebuilding, and the legacy of Ottoman rule in and
outside today’s Turkey—from Baghdad to Sarajevo, Beirut to Mecca, and
“where East meets West”: Constantinople/Istanbul.
Fall HIST1968K S01 14908
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(F. Ahmed)
HIST 1968L. Islamic Law and Societies: Evolution and Revolutions.
This seminar engages the question of change and continuity in the
Islamic legal tradition from medieval to modern times. From the classical
jurisprudence of al-Ghazali to late Ottoman constitutionalism, and the
consequences of the 1979 Iranian Revolution to the Arab Spring uprisings,
our goal is to explore the diversity and historicity of Islamic law across
chronological and geographic space. As we probe questions at the
juncture of law, religion, and politics in and outside the Middle East, course
readings and discussions will reflect the perspectives of both historians
and lawyers, as well as the newly emergent genre of “sociolegal” history.
Spr HIST1968L S01 24098
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(F. Ahmed)
HIST 1969A. Israel-Palestine: Lands and Peoples I.
This advanced undergraduate seminar seeks to provide a deeper
understanding of the links between the region now known as Israel and
Palestine and the peoples that have inhabited it or have made it into part
Brown University
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of their mental, mythical. and religious landscape throughout history. The
course will be interdisciplinary at its very core, engaging the perspectives
of historians, geologists, geographers, sociologists, scholars of religion
and the arts, politics and media. At the very heart of the seminar is the
question: What makes for the bond between groups and place - real or
imagined, tangible or ephemeral. No prerequisites required.
Fall HIST1969A S01 16563
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(O. Bartov)
HIST 1969B. Israel-Palestine: Lands and Peoples II.
This advanced undergraduate seminar seeks to provide a deeper
understanding of the links between the region now known as Israel and
Palestine and the peoples that have inhabited it or have made it into part
of their mental, mythical. and religious landscape throughout history. The
course will be interdisciplinary at its very core, engaging the perspectives
of historians, geologists, geographers, sociologists, scholars of religion
and the arts, politics and media. At the very heart of the seminar is the
question: What makes for the bond between groups and place - real or
imagined, tangible or ephemeral. No prerequisites required.
Spr HIST1969B S01 25469
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(O. Bartov)
HIST 1970B. Enslaved! Indians and Africans in an Unfree Atlantic
World.
This course examines the varieties of Indian and African enslavement in
the Atlantic world, including North America, up through 1800. Reading
widely in recent literature in the field as well as in primary sources from
the colonial period, we will ponder the origins, practices, meanings, and
varieties of enslavement, along with critiques and points of resistance
by enslaved peoples and Europeans. Special emphasis will be given to
the lived nature of enslavement, and the activity of Indians and Africans
to navigate and resist these harsh realities. A final project or paper is
required, but there are no prerequisites. P
Spr HIST1970B S01 25090
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(L. Fisher)
HIST 1970D. Problem of Class in Early America.
This seminar considers economic inequality in colonial British North
America and the new United States. Studying everyone from sailors,
servants, and slaves in the seventeenth century to industrial capitalists
and slaveholders in the nineteenth century, this course will look at the
changing material structures of economic inequality and the shifting
arguments that legitimated or challenged that inequality. Readings will
explore how historians have approached the subject of inequality using
on class as a mode of analysis. Students will write extended papers
that place primary research in conversation with relevant historiography.
Enrollment limited to: 20. Written permission required. WRIT
Fall HIST1970D S01 15427
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(S. Rockman)
HIST 1970F. The Problem of Class in Early American History.
This seminar considers economic inequality in colonial British North
America and the newly United States. Studying everyone from sailors,
servants, and slaves in the seventeenth century to mill owners in the
nineteenth century, this course will look at the changing material structures
of economic inequality and the shifting arguments that legitimated or
challenged that inequality. Readings will explore how historians have
approached the subject of inequality in the American past, with specific
attention on class as a mode of analysis. Is class an objective category
external to a particular moment in the past? Is class an identity or
consciousness that people take upon themselves at a specific time and
place? How is class related to other structures of inequality, such as
patriarchy and race-based slavery? Specific topics include the "Atlantic
Proletariat", the emergence of the eighteenth-century middle class, the
contest over the Constitution in 1780s and 1790s, the labor movement of
the 1820s and 1830s, and the ideology of Antebellum America's fiercest
opponents of capitalism, Southern slaveholders. Students will write
extended papers that place primary research in conversation with relevant
historiography. Enrollment limited to: 20. Written permission required.
WRIT
HIST 1970G. The Recent History of Life on Earth: The Anthropocene.
This seminar will explore ramifications of the concept of the Anthropocene.
The Anthropocene has been proposed as a new human-driven geologic
age that began with the increased exploitation of fossil fuels in the late
eighteenth century. Its proponents emphasize transformations through
anthropogenic climate change, but we will also consider the effects of
population growth, pollution, habitat destruction, and extinction. To assess
14
History
the historical validity of the concept, we will discuss the impact of humans
on the environment before 1800, the extent of transformation since
1800, and whether human-environmental interactions can be usefully
generalized to our species as a whole. WRIT M
HIST 1970H. American Legal and Constitutional History, 1780-1920.
Undergraduate seminar on selected topics in American legal and
constitutional history, focusing mainly on the period before the twentieth
century. Examines recent debates surrounding such subjects as the
making and meaning of the U.S. Constitution; law as an instrument of
economic development and exploitation; crime and punishment in the
early republic; construction of racial and gender categories through
law; and the evolution of rights-consciousness. Enrollment limited to
20. Students should contact the instructor before the beginning of the
semester if they are interested in taking the course. Instructor permission
required. M WRIT
HIST 1970M. The Nuclear Age.
This is a course for students interested in questions about the
development of atomic weapons, their use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
the Cold War arms race that followed, and debates over the risks
associated with other nuclear technologies. We will look carefully at the
scientific and military imperatives behind the Manhattan Project, the
decisions that led to the use of atomic weapons on Japan, and subsequent
efforts to reflect on the consequences of those choices. We will also
explore how popular protest and popular culture after 1945 shaped our
understanding of the terrors and promise of the nuclear age. WRIT
HIST 1970P. Women in Early Modern England.
Selected topics in the social history of early modern England
(c.1500-1800), with particular emphasis on the experiences of women.
Themes to be addressed will include the family, working life, education,
crime, politics, religion, and the early feminists. Not open to freshmen
sophomores. P
HIST 1970Q. Approaches to The Middle East.
This seminar introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Middle
East Studies in the broader context of the history of area studies in the
humanities and social sciences. Why and when did the Middle East
become an area of study? What are the approaches and topics that
have shaped the development of this field? And what are the political
implications of contending visions for its future? The readings sample
canonical and alternative works and the classes feature visits by leading
scholars who research and write on this region. M
HIST 1971C. The Robber Barons.
Contemporary America looks a lot like it did at the turn of the 20th century.
Much like it is now, America's economy at that time was characterized
by a series of violent boom and bust cycles. Moreover, both are periods
of immense inequality. Whereas we have the one per cent, the late 19th
century witnessed a small group of industrial and financial capitalists
amass unprecedented fortunes. In this class, we will explore what the lives
of these “robber barons” can tell us about America’s social, cultural, and
economic history around the turn of the 20th century.
Fall HIST1971C S01 14948
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(L. Rieppel)
HIST 1971D. From Emancipation to Obama.
This course develops a deep reading knowledge of significant issues
and themes that define African American experiences in the 20th
century, experiences that begin with the years following Emancipation
and culminates with the election of President Obama. Themes include
citizenship, gender, labor, politics, and culture. The goal is to develop
critical analysis and historiographical depth. Some background in twentieth
century United States history is preferred but not required. Assignments
include weekly reading responses, class participation and presentation,
and two written papers. Enrollment limited to 20. DPLL WRIT
Spr HIST1971D S01 24645
F
3:00-5:30(15)
(F. Hamlin)
HIST 1971X. From Emancipation To Obama.
This course develops a deep reading knowledge of significant issues
and themes that define African American experiences in the 20th
century, experiences that begin with the years following Emancipation
and culminates with the election of President Obama. Themes include
citizenship, gender, labor, politics, and culture. The goal is to develop
critical analysis and historiographical depth. Some background in twentieth
Brown University
century United States history is preferred but not required. Assignments
include weekly reading responses, class participation and presentation,
and two written papers. Enrollment limited to 20. DPLL WRIT M
HIST 1972A. American Legal History, 1760-1920.
Undergraduate seminar on selected topics in American legal and
constitutional history, focusing mainly on the period before the twentieth
century. Examines recent debates surrounding such subjects as the
making and meaning of the U.S. Constitution; law as an instrument of
economic development and exploitation; crime and punishment in the
early republic; construction of racial and gender categories through
law; and the evolution of rights-consciousness. Enrollment limited to
20. Students should contact the instructor before the beginning of the
semester if they are interested in taking the course. Instructor permission
required. WRIT
Spr HIST1972A S01 24646
F
3:00-5:30(15)
(M. Vorenberg)
HIST 1972D. American Public Policy since 1960: Four Big Issues.
A close examination of four major public policy issues since 1960 in the
United States: poverty, health care, reproductive rights, and drugs. Our
approach will be mult-dimensional and historical: Ideologically how were
the issues framed and debated? Politically, what were the constituencies,
what were their interests, and how did they engage public policy and the
state? Socially, what have been the consequences of the public policy
pathways chosen? High reading, writing, and speaking content.
Spr HIST1972D S01 24099
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(R. Self)
HIST 1972H. Sex, Power, and God: A Medieval Perspective.
Cross-dressing knights, virgin saints, homophobic priests, and mystics
who speak in the language of erotic desire are but some of the medieval
people considered in this seminar. This course examines how conceptions
of sin, sanctity, and sexuality in the High Middle Ages intersected with
structures of power in this period. While the seminar primarily focuses
on Christian culture, it also considers Muslim and Jewish experience.
Enrollment limited to 20. WRIT P
HIST 1973E. Cities and Urban Culture in China.
Treats the development of cities and urban culture in China from roughly
the sixteenth century (the beginning of a great urban boom) to the present.
We will look at the physical layout of cities, city government and social
structure, and urban economic life, often from a comparative perspective.
The course focuses, however, on the changing culture of city life, tracing
the evolution of a vernacular popular culture from the late imperial period,
through the rise of Shanghai commercial culture in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, to the diverse regional urban cultures of
contemporary China. E
HIST 1973J. Korea: North and South.
This course offers a systematic investigation of the political, economic, and
social histories of Korea, North and South, from the inception of the two
governments following liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945 to the
present day. Enrollment limited to 20. M
HIST 1973T. The English Revolution.
Looks at the origins and nature of the English Civil War and Republican
experiment in government (1642-1660) through a close examination of
primary source materials. Considers not only the constitutional conflict
between the crown and parliament, but also the part played by those outof-doors in the revolutionary upheaval, the rise of popular radicalism, and
the impact of events in Scotland and Ireland. P
HIST 1974J. Decolonizing Minds: A People's History of the World.
This seminar will explore the knowledge-production and military-financial
infrastructures that maintain empires, and the means through which
people have resisted or embraced empire. While some attention will be
made to the 19th and early 20th century colonial context, the bulk of the
course will focus on the Cold War liberal era to the neoliberal regime that
continues today. Topics include: popular culture and ideology, Cold War
university, area studies, international anti-war networks, transnational labor
activism, the anti-colonial radical tradition, and the Arab Spring/Occupy
Movements. Weekly readings; evaluation based on participation and
analytical essays. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors.
Spr HIST1974J S01 24209
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(V. Zamindar)
15
HIST 1974M. Early Modern Globalization.
What can the experience of a minority group like the Jews teach us
about roots of globalization? What were the economic, political, and
cultural conditions that allowed early modern Jewish merchants to create
economic networks stretching from India to the New World? We will
answer these questions by examining the connections and interactions
between four major Jewish centers: Ottoman Jewry in the Eastern
Mediterranean, the Port Jews of Amsterdam and London, Polish-Jewish
estate managers in Ukraine, and the Court Jews of central Europe. We
will see how European expansion exploited - and was exploited by - these
Jewish entrepreneurs. P
Spr HIST1974M S01 24212
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(A. Teller)
HIST 1974S. The Nuclear Age.
This is a course for students interested in questions about the
development of atomic weapons, their use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
the Cold War arms race that followed, and debates over the risks
associated with other nuclear technologies. We will look carefully at the
scientific and military imperatives behind the Manhattan Project, the
decisions that led to the use of atomic weapons on Japan, and subsequent
efforts to reflect on the consequences of those choices. We will also
explore how popular protest and popular culture after 1945 shaped our
understanding of the terrors and promise of the nuclear age. WRIT
Fall HIST1974S S01 15428
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(K. Smith)
HIST 1975A. History of Rio de Janeiro.
From colonial outpost to capital of the Portuguese Empire, from
sleepy port to urban megalopolis, this seminar examines the history
of Rio de Janeiro from the sixteenth century to the present. Using
an interdisciplinary perspective rooted in historical analyses, we will
analyze multiple representations of the city, its people, and geography in
relationship to Brazilian history, culture, and society.
HIST 1976E. The Anthropocene: Climate Change as Social History.
This seminar will explore ramifications of the concept of the Anthropocene.
The Anthropocene has been proposed as a new human-driven geologic
age that began with the increased exploitation of fossil fuels in the late
eighteenth century. Its proponents emphasize transformations through
anthropogenic climate change, but we will also consider the effects of
population growth, pollution, habitat destruction, and extinction. To assess
the historical validity of the concept, we will discuss the impact of humans
on the environment before 1800, the extent of transformation since
1800, and whether human-environmental interactions can be usefully
generalized to our species as a whole. WRIT
Spr HIST1976E S01 24208
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(N. Jacobs)
HIST 1976I. The World of Isaac Newton.
This course will focus on the work of Isaac Newton in the context of his
times and its impact in the centuries that followed. WRIT
Spr HIST1976I S01 24647
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(J. Richards)
HIST 1976N. Political Economy: Intellectual History of Capitalism.
What are the intellectual underpinnings of modern capitalism? In this
seminar, we will probe into history of economic thought by reading classic
works by modern economists as well as more recent interpretations by
intellectual historians. Among other things, we will discuss theories of
value, property, markets, labor, inequality, and prices. We will also ask
how the relationship between capitalism and other forms of production
have been understood at various times. Throughout, we will pay particular
attention to the different narratives and explanations that have been
offered by working economists, economic historians, intellectual historians,
philosophers, and historians of science.
Spr HIST1976N S01 24648
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(L. Rieppel)
HIST 1976R. Histories of the Future.
This course is for students interested in how ideas about what the future
of human societies would look like have developed over time, and in the
impact of those ideas on cultural, social and political norms. We will look
carefully at examples of early modern prophecy before turning to the more
recent emergence of theories of economic and social progress, plans
for utopian communities, and markedly less optimistic and often dark
visions of where we’re headed. We will also explore the roles capitalism,
popular culture, and science have played in shaping the practices and
vocabularies associated with imagining the future. WRIT
Brown University
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History
Spr HIST1976R S01 24649
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(K. Smith)
HIST 1976S. Art and Politics.
This seminar will examine how power and culture give meaning to objects
as well as how objects become subjects of history. This seminar will work
closely with the RISD Museum and students in the seminar will select
objects from the museum's collection to historically and creatively examine
different ways of seeing and narrating, combining theory with hands-on
exploration of how objects make their way to museum collections and
acquire the status of "art."
Fall HIST1976S S01 15098
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(V. Zamindar)
HIST 1977I. Gender, Race, and Medicine in the Americas.
This seminar explores the gendered and racial histories of disease
and medicine in nineteenth and twentieth century Latin America and
the United States. From the dark history of obstetrics and slavery in
the antebellum U.S. South to twentieth-century efforts to curb venereal
disease in revolutionary Mexico or U.S.-occupied Puerto Rico, to debates
over HIV policy in Cuba and Brazil—together we will explore how modern
medicine has shaped both race and gender in the Americas. Topics we
will explore include environmental health and the body; infant mortality;
the medicalization of birth; and the colonial/imperial history of new
reproductive technologies.
Spr HIST1977I S01 24650
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(D. Rodriguez)
HIST 1977Q. Decolonizing Minds: A People's History of the World.
This seminar will explore the knowledge-production and military-financial
infrastructures that maintain empires, and the means through which
people have resisted or embraced empire. While some attention will be
made to the 19th and early 20th century colonial context, the bulk of the
course will focus on the Cold War liberal era to the neoliberal regime that
continues today. Topics include: popular culture and ideology, Cold War
university, area studies, international anti-war networks, transnational labor
activism, the anti-colonial radical tradition, and the Arab Spring/Occupy
Movements. Weekly readings; evaluation based on participation and
analytical essays. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors. M
HIST 1978O. Enslaved: Indians and Africans in an Unfree Atlantic
World.
This course examines the varieties of Indian and African enslavement in
the Atlantic world, including North America, up through 1800. Reading
widely in the recent literature in the field as well as in primary sources
from the colonial period, we will ponder the origins, practices, meanings,
and varieties of enslavement, along with critiques and points of resistance
by enslaved peoples and Europeans. Special emphasis will be given to
the lived nature of enslavement, and the activity of Indians and Africans
to navigate and resist these harsh realities. A final project or paper is
required. Enrollment limited to 20. P
HIST 1980U. Popular Culture, 1400-1800 (ITAL 1430).
Interested students must register ITAL 1430.
Fall HIST1980U S01 16650
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 1990. Undergraduate Reading Courses.
Guided reading on selected topics. Section numbers vary by instructor.
Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when
registering for this course.
HIST 1992. History Honors Workshop for Prospective Thesis Writers.
HIST 1992 and HIST 1993 students meet together as the History Honors
Workshop, offered in two separate sections per week. Prospective honors
students are encouraged to enroll in HIST 1992 during semesters 5 or 6.
HIST 1992 offers a consideration of historical methodology and techniques
of writing and research with the goal of preparing to write a senior thesis in
history, allowing students to refine research skills, define a project, prepare
a thesis prospectus, required for admission to honors. Students who
complete honors may count HIST 1992 as a concentration requirement.
Limited to juniors who qualify for the honors program. WRIT
Fall HIST1992
Spr HIST1992
S01 15056
S01 24200
M
M
3:00-5:30(17)
3:00-5:30(13)
(E. Pollock)
(E. Pollock)
HIST 1993. History Honors Workshop for Thesis Writers, Part I.
HIST 1992 and HIST 1993 students meet together as the History Honors
Workshop, offered in two separate sections per week. All students
admitted to the History Honors Program must enroll in HIST 1993 for two
16
History
semesters of thesis research and writing. They may enroll in the course
during semesters 6 and 7, or 7 and 8. Course work entails researching,
organizing, writing a history honors thesis. Presentation of work and
critique of peers' work required. Limited to seniors and juniors who have
been admitted to History Honors Program. HIST 1993 is a mandatory S/
NC course. See History Concentration Honors Requirements.
Fall HIST1993
Spr HIST1993
S01 15057
S01 24201
Arranged
Arranged
(E. Pollock)
(E. Pollock)
HIST 1994. History Honors Workshop for Thesis Writers, Part II.
This is the second half of a year-long course, upon completion the grade
will revert to HIST 1993. Prerequisite: HIST 1993. WRIT
Fall HIST1994
Spr HIST1994
S01 15058
S01 24203
Arranged
Arranged
(E. Pollock)
(E. Pollock)
HIST 2050. Proseminar in Late Medieval History.
Macrohistory/Microhistory. A comparison of two different approaches to
the study of the past, especially of late medieval and early modern Europe,
focusing on the works of Fernand Braudel and Carlo Ginzburg.
HIST 2080. Seminar in European Social History in the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Centuries.
Methods of analysis for current topics in social, economic, demographic,
family, and gender history. Depending on sources available, papers may
be on Italian topics of the 16th-19th centuries, or on French or English
topics of the 18th-19th centuries. Language requirement depends on area
of specialization.
HIST 2090. Proseminar on European Social History in the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries.
Selected readings on changes of social life in European cities in the period
of transition from the preindustrial to the industrial economy. Primary focus
is on developments in France, England, and Italy. Language requirement
depends on area of specialization.
HIST 2450. Exchange Scholar Program.
Fall HIST2450
Spr HIST2450
S01 14583
S01 23789
Arranged
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 2890. Preliminary Examination Preparation.
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are
paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for
a preliminary examination.
Fall HIST2890
Spr HIST2890
S01 14584
S01 23790
Arranged
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 2910. Reading and Research.
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please see check Banner for the
correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
HIST 2930. Colloquium.
Required of all first-year graduate students; includes participation in
Thursday Lecture Series. E
Fall HIST2930
S01 14871
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(K. Sacks)
HIST 2935. Historical Crossings: Empires and Modernity.
“Historical crossings” is a rough translation of histoire croisée, referring
to global configurations of events and a shared history, rather than to
a traditional comparative history. This Seminar is designed to be the
cornerstone of the M.A. program. It will not serve as a traditional historical
methods course but instead focus on training students to read and think
on various scales of historical analysis—from cross-cultural and transgeographic to the granularity of social and cultural specificity, requiring
students to think both globally and locally and introducing them to an
advanced level of historical inquiry, debate, and exploration.
Fall HIST2935
S01 15645
M
12:30-2:50(12)
HIST 2940. Writing Workshop.
Required of all incoming Ph.D. students.
Fall HIST2940
S01 14873
T
1:00-3:30(10)
(H. Cook)
(J. Kamensky)
HIST 2950. Professionalization Seminar.
Required of all second year Ph.D. students; includes participation in
Thursday Lecture Series. E
Spr HIST2950
S01 23990
T
1:00-3:30(10)
(A. Remensnyder)
Brown University
HIST 2960. Prospectus Development Seminar.
This required course open only to second-year students in the History
Ph.D. program focuses on the development of a dissertation prospectus.
The seminar will include considering the process of choosing a
dissertation topic, selecting a dissertation committee, identifying viable
dissertation projects, articulating a project in the form of a prospectus, and
developing research grant proposals based on the prosectus. E
Spr HIST2960
S01 23991
Arranged
(S. Rockman)
HIST 2970A. New Perspectives on Medieval History.
Over the past several decades, the field of medieval history has been
reshaped radically. New approaches have changed the ways that
medievalists think about old subjects. Our understanding of medieval
society itself has expanded as previously marginal or unexplored subjects
have become central to medievalists' concern. This seminar explores
how the ways in which medieval historians practice their craft have
altered in response to these developments. Readings in classic older
works are juxtaposed with newer ones on their way to becoming classics
themselves.
HIST 2970B. Race, Ethnicity and Identity in the Atlantic World.
Explores question of identity in Atlantic world from sixteenth to nineteenth
century, focusing on three types of identity: 1) ethnicity; 2) race; 3)
nationality. How are such identities created and maintained? Are they
"natural" or "artificial"? How do they change over time, and why?
Throughout the seminar, we'll consider both internal/external boundaries,
how social actors - particularly subalterns - see themselves and how
they are imagined by outsiders. Finally, we will examine how identity is
expressed in a wide variety of media - codices, paintings, maps, oral
histories, diaries, etc. - and how scholars make use of such sources.
HIST 2970C. Rethinking the Civil Rights Movement.
This graduate course encourages a rethinking of the complex
components, arguments and activities that have characterized what
we have come to know as the Civil Rights Movement, concentrating
primarily on African American agency, actions and politics, through
careful reading of recent scholarship in the field. While knowledge of U.S.
history is preferred, this course asks larger thematic questions about
protest movements (the role of the state, relationships with and between
oppressed groups and organizations, and periodization), that will interest
non-Americanists also. Some of the topics covered include: gender,
organizing and strategies, the local, global ramifications and interactions,
organizational structures and politics, and the recent concept of the Long
Civil Rights Movement. M
HIST 2970D. Modernity and Everyday Culture - Reading.
No description available.
HIST 2970E. Early Modern Continental Europe - Reading.
This course is designed to introduce graduate students to some major
topics and debates in early modern European history, as well as a range
of geographical, methodological, and historiographical perspectives.
Readings combine recent works and classics to give a sense both of
where the field has been and where it is going. Topics covered include
political history, religious interactions (among Christians and between
Christians, Jews and Moslems), urban history, the history of the book,
Atlantic history, the history of science, and the Enlightenment. The class
also provides the opportunity to explore a single topic of choice in greater
depth.
Fall HIST2970E S01 14867
Th
1:00-3:30(10)
(A. Teller)
HIST 2970F. Problems in Modern Jewish History - Reading.
This course examines significant issues in the history and historiography
of modern European Jewry from the mid-18th century to WWII. It is divided
into four units each of which considers a thematic question that has
been of interest to European Jewish historians, including: emancipation,
integration, and acculturation; gender and the study of modern Jewish
history; approaches to minority identity; and history and memory. Written
permission required.
HIST 2970G. Early Modern European Empires.
This course addresses both the history and historiography of the most
relevant European imperial experiences in Africa, Asia and America c.
1400-1800. It will focus on the structure and dynamics of the Iberian
case(s), as well as in the profile of the so-called Second European
17
expansion led by the Dutch, the English and a number of other (minor)
European examples. Particular emphasis will be given to the relations
between these imperial bodies and other (non-European) Empires, by
focusing on cross-cultural contacts and conflicts, hybrid societies and
images. Restricted to juniors, seniors, and graduate students only. P
HIST 2970H. American Political History.
This graduate seminar will explore a range of approaches to the study
of America’s political past from the colonial period to the late twentieth
century, including scholarship on electoral politics, the state, political
culture, grassroots politics and resistance, the politics of gender and
family, and American political development. We will analyze how scholars
have defined and redefined the field over time and throughout we will
interrogate the question, “what is political history?”
Fall HIST2970H S01 14949
Th
4:00-6:30(02)
(T. Steffes)
HIST 2970I. Methodologies of the Ancient World.
No description available. Open to graduate students only.
HIST 2970J. Early Modern British History-Reading.
No description available.
HIST 2970L. Race and U.S. Empire.
No description available.
HIST 2970M. Japan, from Tokugawa to Meiji - Reading.
Compares the organization and exercise of political authority, the
production and distribution wealth, and norms of cultural expression during
the Tokugawa and Meiji periods as a way of understanding the dynamics
of Japanese modernization.
HIST 2970O. Modern Latin American History - Reading.
No description available.
HIST 2970P. Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American History Reading.
No description available.
HIST 2970Q. Core Readings in 20th Century United States History.
Major topics and themes in 20th-century U.S. history. M
HIST 2970R. U.S. Social/Cultural History, 1877-present - Reading.
Case studies of prominent public intellectuals spanning the century from
John Reed to George Wills, Mary McCarthy to Frances Fitzgerald.
HIST 2970S. Western and Frontier History - Reading.
An introduction to recent work on the history of North American frontiers
and the region of the American West.
HIST 2970T. Representations of Suffering and Victimhood in History
and Memoirs.
How have historians approached the representation of suffering in
their work? How have attitudes toward representations of suffering and
atrocities in historical narratives changed since the second world war?
More generally, how do human rights narratives construct the identities
of victims? This seminar will explore these questions in the context of the
genocide of European Jewry. Requirements: One in-class presentation of
weekly readings; one 20-25 page paper. Class participation required.
HIST 2970U. Topics in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American
History.
M
HIST 2970V. Atlantic Empires.
No description available.
HIST 2970W. Graduate Readings in Early American History.
No description available.
Fall HIST2970W S01 14868
Arranged
(L. Fisher)
HIST 2970X. Topics in the History of Empire and Culture.
No description available.
HIST 2970Y. History and Theory of Secularity.
No description available.
HIST 2970Z. Core Readings in Nineteenth Century Europe.
Provides an introduction to the central issues of nineteenth-century
European history. It has two purposes: first, to help you refine your
abilities to think historiographically; second, to assist you in preparing
Brown University
17
18
History
for your comprehensive exams. To that end, we will read both standard
interpretations and newer scholarship.
Fall HIST2970Z S01 14869
M
3:00-5:30(15)
(M. Gluck)
HIST 2971A. Science in a Colonial Context.
This graduate seminar will consider the politics of science in colonies
societies. Subjects covered include: the relationship between science
and local (indigenous) knowledges, science and the "civilizing" mission,
social relations in knowledge production, science and development, racial
science and subject bodies, science and nationalism. Assignments will
include book review, a review essay and leading discussion.
HIST 2971B. Topics in Twentieth Century Europe.
This course will introduce graduate students to current scholarship on
major issues in twentieth century European history. Topics will include
(but are not limited to) the causes and consequences of the two world
wars; the emergence, workings, and collapse of authoritarian societies;
the spread of mass culture and consumerism; Americanization; decolonization; the European Union, and the collapse of the bi-polar
political system. In the interest of introducing students to the significant
historiographical debates of the field, they will read both standard historical
interpretations and newer scholarship. M
HIST 2971C. Readings in American History.
Topics in American social and cultural history in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
HIST 2971D. Passion, Dispassion, and the Scholar.
What role should passion and the imagination play in intellectual
endeavor? Is the dispassionate, objective, and objectifying voice the only
appropriate one in the arena of scholarship? How much can or should
the scholar let his or her personality and personal investment in a subject
appear on the page? The seminar will explore these and related questions
by examining non-traditional modes of scholarly writing (primarily but
not exclusively drawing on historians and anthropologists). This is not a
seminar about theory and method, although such issues will inevitably be
part of our discussions. It is a seminar about writing and scholarly voice. P
HIST 2971E. Latin American Historiography.
This course examines the development of historical writings on Latin
America produced in the United States from the late nineteenth century
until the present. We will focus on themes, such as race, gender, labor,
subaltern studies, dependency theory, postcolonial analysis, and postmodernism, to understand the diverse approaches to Latin American
history. M
Fall HIST2971E S01 14870
W
3:00-5:30(17)
(J. Green)
HIST 2971F. Gender & Knowledge in Early Modern Europe.
HIST 2971G. Notions of Public & Private in Late Modern Europe.
any related archival trail with confidence. Open to graduate students only.
E
HIST 2971N. Critical Perspectives on Public and Private.
No description available. Open to graduate students only.
HIST 2971O. Graduate Preliminary Readings.
No description available.
HIST 2971P. Diasporas and Transnationalism.
This reading seminar is designed to familiarize students with the most
cited and current theories on diaspora and transnationalism, to examine a
few exemplary case studies from around the world, and to allow students
to develop and discuss their individual interests and reading lists around
these broad themes and concepts, towards a prelim field or dissertation
prospectus.
HIST 2980B. Legal History.
An introduction for graduate students to the significance and methods of
legal history, broadly defined. Students will engage with works in legal
history from a variety of time periods and geographical areas, and they will
be guided to sources related to their specific research interests. A major
research essay will be required that draws from the models of legal history
given and is based on original research into legal sources. E
HIST 2980C. Race, Ethnicity and Identity in Atlantic World.
This seminar examines the meaning of racial and ethnic identity in colonial
Latin America. Our primary approach will be historiographical; we will
begin with colonial concepts of racial hierarchy, then move on to national
ideologies of mestizaje and indigenismo, the emergence of "race mixture"
as a scholarly topic, the "caste vs. class" debate of the 1970s and 1980s,
and finally recent works on the African diaspora.
HIST 2980D. Topics in Violence in Modern Europe: Interethnic
Relations and Violence in Eastern Europe.
This seminar will examine recent studies on interethnic coexistence,
violence, and genocide in East-Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th
century. Readings will range from works on definitions of ethnicity and the
making of nations to studies of communities and interpersonal relations.
We will also read and listen to testimonies and analyze contemporary
documents.
HIST 2980E. Social History in Early Modern England - Research.
Readings on select topics in early modern English social history.
Topics include: marriage formation, crime, social unrest, gender
issues, and popular culture. Open to graduate students and advanced
undergraduates.
HIST 2980F. Modern British History - Research.
No description available.
HIST 2971H. Politics and Society in the 20th Century.
HIST 2980G. Topics in Violence in Modern Europe - Research.
No description available.
HIST 2971I. New Perspectives on Medieval History.
No description available.
HIST 2980H. Early American History - Research.
Research seminar.
HIST 2971J. Topics in 19th c. U.S. History.
This state-of-the-field course will introduce students to nineteenth-century
U.S. history, with specific attention to how recent transnational, imperial,
institutional, and cultural approaches have reframed older debates over
the "Age of Jackson," "Manifest Destiny," and the "Market Revolution."
This seminar offers core readings for students preparing a comprehensive
exam field, while providing others with content knowledge to teach this
period of American history.
HIST 2980I. Problems in American Social History - Research.
An advanced examination of the issues and methodology of American
urban and social history plus primary research in specific topics.
HIST 2971L. Borderlands: Violence and Coexistence.
Readings of theoretical and empirical studies in interstate and inter-ethnic
relations in borderland regions throughout the world, with an emphasis on
the modern period in East-Central. Open to graduate students only.
HIST 2971M. History of Medicine.
The history of medicine is a topic that can shed light on any period and
place, since all aspects of human life are intertwined parts of the story:
ideas, religion, culture, material life, economy, politics, social organization
and legal institutions, etc. This reading course is meant to introduce
graduate students to the main subjects debated in the field, so that by the
end of the semester you will be able to read in the literature and to take up
18
History
HIST 2980J. U.S. Women's/Gender History - Research.
Focus is 20th-century history. Open only to graduate students.
HIST 2980K. Passion, Dispassion, and the Scholar.
What role should passion play in intellectual endeavor? Should the
scholar's personal involvement in a subject appear on the page? What
is the value of the dispassionate voice as opposed to a narrative voice
of immediacy? The seminar explores such issues in modes of scholarly
writing (primarily but not exclusively historical and anthropological).
Although questions of theory and method inevitably arise, this is a seminar
about scholarly voice.
HIST 2980L. Research and Pedagogy.
This research seminar is geared to help graduate students think about the
ways in which they can incorporate their own research into the courses
they will teach. The final product for the seminar is a primary source unit
and an accompanying essay tht can conceivably serve as a "teacher's
guide." All fields and periods welcome. E
Brown University
HIST 2980M. Nature, Space and Power: Environmental History.
No description available.
HIST 2980N. Gender and Knowledge.
No description available.
HIST 2980P. Theory of Everyday Life.
What do we mean by the "everyday" and how can we study it in the social
sciences and represent it in the arts? We will focus on attempts to answer
this question both on the theoretical and the empirical levels. Readings will
include philosophers of everyday life and examples of recent scholarship
in "everyday life studies" that have revolutionized the study of leisure,
entertainment, national identity, decolonization and gender.
HIST 2980Q. Seminar in Early Modern British History.
No description available.
HIST 2980R. Cultures of Empire.
The goal of this course is to research and produce a piece of original
historical scholarship, drawing on methodologies developed during the
cultural turn in the study of empires. Early semester readings address
approaches to studying empire (Marxian, Subaltern Studies, Cultural
Studies, etc.) and various locations: British India, Japanese Manchuria,
and Netherlands Indies, among others. The course then evolves into a
history writing workshop for the rest of the semester, paying attention
also to historical writing, including style, form, and narrative strategies.
Relevant to historical inquiry into cross-cultural encounters in any time
period.
HIST 2980S. Hannah Arendt and Her World.
This seminar will explore key concerns and paradigms in 20th-century
intellectual history via a critical consideration of the thinking of Hannah
Arendt (1906-75). In recent years, Arendt's work has earned renewed
attention for its multidisciplinary, multicontinental importance as well as
for its uncanny currency to the present political and academic moment.
Her thinking is thus in many ways "migratory thinking." Migratory thinking
involves first the diaspora and exchange of thinkers, most specifically
through political exile and emigration during the Nazi period and after.
It thus involves both the experience and theorization of "worldliness":
the Enlightenment value that remains a key principle for Arendt, with
special reference to Lessing. Migratory thinking also involves discursive
movement among disciplines and cultures, for example from German
philosophy to American political theory/science, and the complications of
intellectual and cultural subjectivity of émigré as well as German Jewish
thinking. Finally, the history and historical contingency that support this
style of thinking emphasize the drive to thinking, responsibility, and
judgment at a moment of danger. Readings and seminar discussions
will focus on Arendt's work, read in dialogue with the work of thinkers
with whom she was in dialogue (Benjamin, Broch, Heidegger, Scholem)
and with the later work of thinkers whose own subject positions might be
considered comparable with the concerns in the paragraph above (G.
Rose, S. Neiman, S. Aschheim, J. Derrida et al.). Themes will include
cosmopolitanism, nationalism, and totalitarianism, the global politics
of race, capitalism, and exchange, religious/secular tensions, and the
relations of society and politics to art and the imagination.
HIST 2980T. Minorities, Citizenship and Nation.
No description available.
HIST 2980U. Power, Culture, Knowledge.
"Truth isn't outside power, or lacking in power... [t]ruth is a thing of this
world," wrote Michel Foucault in the mid 1970s. In this course we will read
and examine Foucault's seminal works on knowledge and power, and the
kinds of scholarship it has engendered at the intersections of history, art
history, anthropology, political science and social theory. In addition to
Foucault's major interlocutor, Edward Said, we will read Antonio Gramsci,
Derrida and Walter Benjamin. We will end the semester with facing the
challenge of historicizing our own political present through a number of
contemporary thinkers. M
19
HIST 2980W. First Person History in Times of Crisis: Witnessing,
Memory, Fiction.
This seminar examines the relationship between History as a narrative
of events and history as individual experience. Postulating that historical
events as related by historians were experienced in numerous different
ways by their protagonists, the seminar focuses on the complementary
and contradictory aspects of this often fraught relationship at times of
crisis, especially in war and genocide. While much time will be spent
on World War II and the Holocaust, the seminar will engage with other
modern wars and genocides across the world. Materials will include
eyewitness reports, postwar testimonies and trial records, memoirs and
relevant works of fiction. Open to graduate students only. M
Spr HIST2980W S01 23989
Th
4:00-6:30(17)
(O. Bartov)
HIST 2981E. Environmental History.
A topical seminar with global and chronologically broad scope,
"Environmental History" surveys classic works and recent writing on
explicitly environmental themes such as agriculture, conservation, energy,
and anthropogenic change. Equally, it considers environmental treatments
of major topics in other sub-fields such as war, science, imperialism, the
body and senses, and animals. In examining this broad range of topics,
we will seek what is distinctive about environmental history and how
environmental considerations can enhance the students' own research.
HIST 2981F. The Politics of Knowledge.
The seminar offers an introduction to fundamental theoretical texts and
exemplary works in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology
Studies. Readings will be drawn from a range of time periods and
geographical areas, and students will be asked to deploy the theoretical
insights of our readings in working with sources in their own fields for
a final research paper. Topics include: the gendered dimensions of
knowledge, the moral economy of science, claims to expertise, and the
stakes of "objectivity."
HIST 2981J. The Body.
This seminar will consider theories of the body as a site of knowledge,
politics, culture, gender, and identification in a broad range of temporal and
geographic contexts. We will also examine how historians have written the
history of the body, and what sources they have used to do so.
Spr HIST2981J S01 24216
W
3:00-5:30(14)
(T. Nummedal)
HIST 2981K. Ritual Studies For Everyday Life.
This course explores the methods and frameworks of ritual and spatial
analysis as applied widely across fields of history. Readings reflect
theory and practice from anthropology, archaeology, cultural and religious
studies; and the histories of architecture, cities, economy, the environment,
memory, politics, religion, and science. The goal of the course is to
discover how studying spatial arrangements and ritual relationships
(broadly conceived) can be used as tools in historical work, and to discuss
where historians can learn method from other disciplines and vice versa.
Spr HIST2981K S01 24217
M
3:00-5:30(13)
(R. Nedostup)
HIST 2990. Thesis Preparation.
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are
paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing a
thesis.
Fall HIST2990
Spr HIST2990
S01 14585
S01 23791
Arranged
Arranged
’To Be Arranged'
’To Be Arranged'
HIST 2980V. Early Modern Empires.
This seminar will explore various approaches to understanding the rise,
expansion, and contraction of empires in the early modern period (ca.
1500-1800). Students will be required to write a major research essay
based on primary sources.
Brown University
19